Who Knew
by MellyHorror-Salvatore-Northman
Summary: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go. Rated T.
1. Preface

_**Title**_**: Who Knew**

_**Summary**_**: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

_**Rated**_**: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

_**Disclaimer**_**: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately. **

**When you accidentally let the wrong one go, what will you do to win her back?**

**TPOV**

_Jade West._

It's a name I hadn't heard in three years.

It's the name of a girl I hadn't seen in three years.

It's the name of the girl who was once my best friend.

It's the name of the girl who was once my girl friend.

It's the name of the girl who I once knew everything about.

It's the name of the girl who once knew everything about me.

It's the name of the girl who unintentionally stole my heart.

It's the name of the girl who took my heart, and ran away with it.

We met in elementary school. She was sitting on a bench on the playground all alone, kicking her black tennis shoe through the dirt while she doodled on a pad of paper. My friends told me not to talk to her, they thought she was freaky.

Dressed in mostly dark blue with waves of light brown hair and dark green large eyes on her pale, doll-like face, I would have said they were green as the freshly cut grass back then. Her gaze was soft, almost tender as she looked down at the image she was drawing, but when I stepped up to her and stuck out my hand they turned to daggers, piercing right through my heart.

"I'm Tori." I told her, still holding my hand out. She glared at with disgust, like it was diseased, "It's clean, I promise." Of their own accord I remember my teeth coming out to catch my bottom lip, pulling it into my mouth, tears burning in my eyes. I wasn't used to people ignoring me, "what's your name?" my hand dropped to my side.

"Go. Away." She muttered, those green eyes softening a bit. I sighed and walked around her, pulling myself up onto the bench beside her, glancing down at the flower she was drawing on her paper.

"So, _Go_, when did you move here?" I asked, her eyebrows arched in shock and I couldn't suppress the giggle that left my mouth. She covered her shock with a defensive anger, of course then I thought she was just mad at me.

"Two days ago." She said shortly, her nostrils flaring a little bit.

"You don't have many friends." I observed, my eyes glancing up at the clear blue sky, my feet swinging, my legs weren't long enough to reach the ground. She didn't give me an answer, "I'll be your friend."

"I don't want a friend." She snapped irritably, and that's where our friendship started. I did not take no for an answer, a trait I soon learned we had in common. I talked to her every day, defended her in front of my old friends.

As we grew older she protected me from bullies, I protected her from her thoughts, from herself. We balanced each other well. My mom always joked that we were joined at the hip, nearly twins.

Before middle school Jade didn't wear black that often. She usually wore blue or yellow with her hair in one or two braids depending on what her mom did that morning. But the summer before middle school started, Jade's parents went through a divorce. Jade changed her looks, the brash attitude she always seemed to have toward everyone else was turned on me, and she made me cry all the time, never apologized for it either. But I knew she didn't mean it, or I hoped she didn't. She was scared. She didn't want to be hurt, again.

I pushed and pushed, pried and pried, and like an onion, I peeled away her layers until my Jade was back, but she was broken and no amount of duct tape or bandages were going to fix her, and all I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her together, but she was back and she didn't hurt me anymore.

By the start of 6th grade I'd realized I had a big crush on Jade, I'd always known I'd liked her, but one day I saw her kiss a boy, jealousy reared its ugly head inside of me and I didn't talk to Jade for three weeks, until she cornered me and forced me to tell her what was wrong.

"I like you!" I blurted, caving under the intense stare of those burnt green apple eyes. Her lips had quirked up in a smirk and she leaned in and kissed me. It was quick it was short and just like with our friendship, one simple thing turned Jade and I into girlfriends.

It was the summer before 7th grade when all hell broke loose. Jade and I got into a big fight because she picked her new friend over me to spend the night with. I refused her calls until she stopped calling, and then my family moved to California. To this day, I have no clue where Jade West is, but wherever she is she's still got my heart locked in her little box, and I doubt she has any intention of giving it back.


	2. Improv

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter__One:_Improv**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately. **

**_A/N:_Glad you guys liked the preface, I hope you like this chapter. Also, this is the only chapter sticking to the episodes. The other will eventually run through a few episodes, but for the most part it won't. Enjoy! Review if you'd be so kind, I love feedback!**

Let's just get a few things cleared up.

One; I never really wanted to go to Hollywood Arts, but I need a break from my old school, from the _people_ at my old high school, two; with much 'thanks' to Trina if I went to school I would have failed my science project, three; Trina threatened to murder me in my sleep if I didn't show up.

Hollywood Arts was a school for aspiring actors, singers, dancers and more artsy and creative people, and every year they had this big showcase for students to perform in. Trina got paired up with this Sophomore named Andre for the showcase, and dragged me into it, just because I was also a Sophomore.

On the night of the showcase just before she was supposed to go on, her tongue swelled up like a balloon, preventing her (and saving everyone else) from singing. Andre forced me, and I mean picked me up, carried me behind a changing screen, and then picked me up and set me on the stage, to take Trina's place.

The principal offered me a place at the school after seeing my performance, and after a lot of persuasion, I agreed to attend the school. How different could it be, really? Oh how stupid I was being.

I totally forgot to wash my clothes last night too, so I was stuck wearing these awful white pants, a white shirt with ruffles on the front, a blue deep cut vest and a strange purple cardigan. I felt like a total dork.

Trina approved, she didn't want me to look better then her, even if she wouldn't admit it. I sat at the breakfast table, scooping absently at the now soggy Raisin Bran in my bowl. Trina was ranting about something across the table from me, savagely shoving food into her mouth.

Disgusted I looked away, trying to calm the butterflies raging through my stomach. I was in 10th grade, why was I still so frickin' nervous about going to school? With a sigh I got up and dumped out my cereal, just as Trina was finishing her breakfast.

After we both brushed our teeth and sprayed on some perfume she herded me into her car and drove us to Hollywood Arts. My new school. A school filled with wickedly talented people, except for Trina, I had no clue how or why Trina was there. I felt like I was going to puke.

As soon as we walked in I knew this was _not_a normal high school, but Trina turned around and tried to tell me it was, I looked around skeptically at the people around us, "Uh this is _not_just a high school. These kids are all artsy and creative and talented and I'm just _normal.__"_

"It's okay." Trina said in an exaggerated voice, "there's nothing wrong with being average." I simply nodded at her, giving her my 'yeah right' face, "anyway, you're not alone. I got your back."

"Okay.." just as I said it a dark haired girl rushed up to us, yelping Trina's name, talking about some guy getting his hair straightened, Trina freaked and ran off with her. "I'm alone!" I called after her, narrowing my eyes at her retreating back. How was I supposed to get to class _now_?

I spun, looking for someone to ask for help, and I spotted a girl with flaming red curly hair rushing past me, "hey uhm, can you tell me-." I called her, she stopped and spun.

She cut me off, "oh my god! You're Tori right?" I confirmed it with a nervous smile on my face, "you were so awesome in the big show case!" she babbled, her voice was high pitched and her brown eyes were wide as she talked.

"Awww, thanks!"

She introduced herself as Cat, I stupidly said, 'like the animal' and she freaked out, "what's that supposed to mean?" she backed up looking offended and scared.

"Nothing I-I love cats!"

"Oh me too! They're so cute!" and then she just walked away, leaving me alone again. Great, fantastic. _Amazing._Not. I already wanted to go home. The nervous butterflies previously fluttering around in my stomach had multiplied into humming birds that were pecking painfully trying to escape.

The next kid I saw was carrying a puppet, and I didn't want to stop him, but I did before I could stop myself, "hey! Hello! Female…Yes?" he asked, _yup.__Shouldn__'__t__have__stopped__him,_but I asked him where my class was anyways.

His sentence started with "if you head due North" and I knew I shouldn't have asked him, his puppet interrupted him and said I wasn't a pirate, he told the puppet it was none of my business, and the puppet once again cut him off, giving me the directions to the classroom.

With what was probably a scared face I thanked, them? Him?, and then walked away as fast as I could. I found the right classroom after awhile, having spaced out and not really remembered the puppets directions.

I set my bag down by a chair and turned to go spit my gum out when I walked right into some guy behind me who was texting, I spilled his coffee down the front of his shirt, shit, "hey." He said in a calm voice, weird, he was kind of laughing.

"Oh my gosh." I looked down at his ruined shirt wide eyed, the butterflies had turned into bees and were stinging my insides like crazy, trying to sting their way out. But they weren't dying like bees so they must be wasps. Great, I'm allergic to wasps.

"Hey it's cool." He said with a laugh to brush it off, but I still felt bad. I ruined the kid's shirt.

"No it's not. I spilled coffee on your…here." And then I did my awkward Tori thing and started rubbing it with my sleeve to get it out. What the hell was I even thinking? Rubbing made it worse.

He tried to tell me it was okay, but I was in what I liked to call 'awkward autopilot' and I wouldn't listen, my nerves getting the better of me. "You might be making it worse, actually." I looked up at him to reply that I was.

But someone cut me off, someone with a voice that made my heart slam to a stop, "dude!" I looked up my eyes wide, "why you rubbing my boyfriend?" Awkward autopilot switches to awkward, scared, confused, overload of emotions autopilot and I shut down.

"Oh—I—I just, I spilled…coffee on you-your…" my sentence trailed off, my jaw hung open and I was most assuredly staring.

"_Get_ away from him." Familiar burnt apple green eyes met my own and I lost control over my body, the guy gave me a sympathetic look before turning around and walking over to the girl, who was still watching me, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax." He told her, leaning down and kissing her cheek while she glared at me from merely two feet away. She was dressed in black jeans and a black vest that showed her arms and a pair of boots. Her hair was a touch darker then I remembered, and she had thick blue streaks in her bangs to the back of her head. She had a thick black bracelet with Jaded written on it covering a star tattoo on her inner arm that I remember her talking about getting and her left eyebrow was pierced.

But that was her. Oh god. That was Jade West. That was the girl who used to be my world. _Oh__my__god,__I__think__I__'__m__about__to__die_. My heart is hammering hard against my ribcage where it dropped and only one other thought not related to Jade runs through my mind. _I__'__m__going__to__kill__Trina._

Before anyone could say anything another door burst open, somewhere behind me and someone was shouting "Oh my god! There's a huge fire!" people started screaming, but I didn't move. My eyes only widened in shock; that was the homeless man I gave two dollars too, what the heck was going on in the classroom?

"Kidding! Kidding!" he yelled over everyone's panic, Andre (Trina's showcase partner and the reason I was in this mess) who had come in seconds ago was now looking at him like he was bat shit crazy, maybe he was, "just wanted to get your blood pumping, which I did."

He said lets get started and told us to sit, I was half aware of Andre pulling me toward a chair and pushing me to sit down. I might've asked him a question but I wasn't sure. Like I said I was on auto pilot trying to figure one thing out.

Jade was here. Jade was at Hollywood Arts. Jade was in my class. _Jade__was__the__one__glaring__daggers__at__me__for__touching__her__boyfriend._It might not look like the same soon to be 8th grader I got mad at a 3 summers ago, her hair was darker brown with chunks of blue in the front instead of on the underside, but those eyes were unique, it was her. I could smell the same perfume she always wore, a scent of amber.

I wasn't sure how long it took me to process this, and how long it took me to stop freaking out about Jade being snuggled up with her boyfriend right behind me, but the teacher called for my attention and eventually I shut my thoughts of and turned to him.

"You're familiar with improv." He stated.

"No…" I deadpanned, trying to shove Jade from my mind as he explained it to me, I nodded when he asked if I understood and then he told Jade to pick her actors. She got out of her chair and moved up to the raised up stage, her eyes scanning the class.

"Cat, Eli, Beck and _Tori_." Her green orbs landed on me and I wanted to run away, panic struck from my head to my feet. This couldn't be Jade, not Jade, not _my_Jade. Not the Jade I'd been in love with for years. _No._

I sat frozen in my seat, turning to Andre for I don't know what, for him to save me? He gestured for me to go up on stage, with a gulp I got to my feet and walked toward the steps. Jade walked up to me after the class decided we were at home and our topic was big news, my eyes were wide with fear, "uh, why don't you go wait in the hall." I didn't like the glint in her eyes as she said this. I obeyed anyways.

"Uh…okay." I clapped my hands together nervously and moved out the door, all too aware of her eyes on my back as I did so, I was hyper aware of everything to with her. I heard Sikowitz, the teacher; shouted action and I wasn't really paying attention until Jade was standing in front of me.

"-to the animal shelter and got us a dog." Jade grabbed the sleeve of my shirt, trying not to make contact, but her fingers lightly brushed my arm anyways, sending chills up my arm and through my body as she pulled me onto the stage.

"Uhhh….yep. I'm the new family dog. Woof." She made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat and demanded that Sikowitz tell me that dogs don't talk or stand on two legs. He tells me to play the part of the dog, landing me on hands and knees going 'woof'.

Cat and Eli rushed over to pet me, and Beck leaned over and asked if the dog could sleep in their room. I almost grinned, Jade narrowed her eyes and her jaw set in anger, "no, _honey_it can't."

And suddenly she was bending down to touch my hair, saying that it looked like I had bugs in my fur. I knew that tone of voice. She was going to do _something_to me. I wanted to bolt and run, but I was never afraid of Jade before and I wasn't going to start now.

I should have run though, sucked up my stupid ass pride and _sprinted_out of the room_._

In a sugary sweet voice she said, "Oh, it's okay. I read on the internet that coffee works great for getting rid of fur bugs" as she walked down the stage and took some guys coffee. Here it comes, damn it I should have run. Beck protested, Andre called her name to stop her, but she just simply popped the lid off of the coffee cup and in three steps was standing beside me, pouring the iced coffee down on my hair.

I wanted to cry, but I wouldn't give her the satisfaction. That's what she wanted, she wanted me to cry and run away.

She tipped it fully over, the ice smacked against my skull and anger ran through me. What was Jade's problem? I quickly pretended I was shocked to mask the hurt that was sure to appear on my face, I stood up, narrowing my eyes at her.

She met mine levelly with no hint of regret in them, "what's the prob, _dog_?" I was sure my hurt was shining through my eyes, but only she would see it because I ducked my head and ran out of the room, over to the steps near the door where Trina and I came in and I pulled out my phone, intent on calling my mother.

No way could I go to school with Jade. No way could I handle her acting like this toward me. What was her problem? It was 3 years ago, surely she's not still mad me for justifiably being mad at her. What did I do? Sure I was rubbing up on her boyfriend, but I spilled coffee on him! I certainly didn't deserve coffee on me for an accident.

Andre had followed me out of the classroom, "hey Whatchu doing?" he asked casually.

"Calling my mom to tell her I wanna go back to my old school." I snapped, dialing her number from memory rather then scrolling through my contacts.

"Why?" he asked.

"'Cause I don't like having black coffee dumped in my hair!"

"Then I'll getchu some cream and sugar, everything'll be chill." He tried, I glared at him, though silently I thought it was funny and if I wasn't so hurt by Jade's actions I might've laughed.

I moved to hit call and he reached over and took my phone before I could, "hey! Give that back!" I reached to snatch it away from his hands but he batted them away effortlessly.

"Nope." He shoved it deep in his pocket, "You're gunna quit this school on your first day just because of one mean girl?" he asked.

_No,__because__that__mean__girl__is__Jade._I thought but instead answered, "it's not just her, it's just I don't fit in here. This place isn't normal." Before either of us replied puppet boy, who Andre called Robbie, came rushing out to tell us Sikowitz wanted us back in class. Soon after Cat came out to reiterate the statement.

Andre told them both to go back to class and I thought about just running out, I could make my way home without my phone. I'd make Trina get it back for me or something. "Okay, maybe this school isn't normal. But you're not normal either, I've seen what you can do on stage, you're special."

He started walking away but stopped to say one thing, "normal is boring." He tossed me my phone back and then walked away. I pocketed my phone after texting him and asking him to take my bag to Trina and then I walked all the way home.

After I got home I showered and then I sat down on my bed, flipping through pictures of Jade and I from that last summer, a video of me at the showcase was playing on my computer and my mind was at war.

I had talent, and a shot to do something with it. Was I going to let Jade, a girl who probably doesn't even care, or remember, who I am, ruin that? It was the question I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon trying to figure out.

I was in the living room watching the video again after Trina got home from the store, three hours after we were in a screaming match about her not warning me about Jade. To which she defended, "I didn't think you'd care".

She took one look at me and sunk down on the couch beside me, looking at the screen then at me, "you know, you're actually not terrible." After a brief silence due to me pausing the video she spoke again, "you really gunna quit Hollywood Arts?"

"What do you think I should do?" _why__the__hell__did__I__ask__that?_

"Stay."

"Why?"

"So I won't be known as the girl with the lame sister who quit on her first day." She said with a 'duh' tone to her voice. I rolled my eyes; of course she'd say that. She gave my shoulder a light shove and started walking toward the stairs, "and I think you were really good in the big showcase."

I didn't respond to her so she just continued up the stairs, I hit play again.

I would go back, not just because I knew I could do great there. But to show Jade that she wasn't going to win just by dumping iced coffee over my head. I never backed down from her, like hell I would start now.

So why did I feel like I was doing something totally wrong?

The next day I got dressed in a grey shirt, a pair of blue skinny jeans and some gladiator sandals and met Trina downstairs, she just gave me a strange smile and got into the car, no words passed between us. We were running pretty late, so class had already started when I pushed the door to Sikowitz's room open.

The look on Jade's face when I walked in was burning hot anger, I smirked at her and cocked an eyebrow before turning to Sikowitz, "Tori, you're back." I smiled in answer, clasping my hands in front of me "you ever thought about coming in through the window?"

"No…" I trailed off, confused.

"Think about it." He shrugged, rubbing his nose, "now sit, sit." Jade glared at me and Beck smiled, and it almost looked like he was proud of me for coming back, I raised an eyebrow at him before he turned away from me. I took my chair and sat behind Andre, which happened to put me beside Jade, while Sikowitz explained alphabetical improve.

I even offered the lead the next group, a brilliant plan forming in my head, he gestured for me to come up and pick my group, "Okay, Andre, Beck, Cat, and _Jade_." My eyes landed on hers a grin splayed across my face, she raised an eyebrow at me, "Yeah, you."

She made an 'okay then' gesture and stood up, arms still crossed as they had been when she sat. She walked up to Beck and kissed him hard before shooting me a nasty look, I shrugged it off and Sikowitz told her to kiss her boyfriend on her own time.

She met my eyes, "Oh, I will."

The first letter was P, and so I began, turning to Jade, "Please go take a shower."

"Quit telling me what to do." She snapped, stepping closer.

Beck stepped closer to us, trying to get between us, "Relax, girls. Let's all try to get along."

"Totally!" Cat was buzzed out by Sikowitz.

"Uh, something just bit my toe!" Andre scrambled to find something to say.

What should I say, "Turtle! That turtle just bit his toe!" I blurted out randomly, gesturing toward the invisible creature and Andre's foot.

"Unbelievable that you're even here." The words told me what I had wondered earlier, she remembered me.

"Very immature of you to say that." Beck chastised, giving his girl friend a pointed glare that she ignored.

"What if the turtle bit my toe bone?" Andre spluttered, breaking up the three way glare match between us.

"X-rays are the only way to find out." I came up with, spinning away from Jade.

"You should shut up." Jade hissed, by now the class could tell she was trying to get under my skin, I could tell she was frustrated that I wasn't letting her.

"Zap! I just healed your toe with my magic finger." Beck said with a grin.

"Thanks." Andre replied instantly, Sikowitz sent him offstage.

"Aliens are the ones that can heal toes by finger zapping." I said, turning to Beck.

"By the way," Jade said, and then blew a raspberry at me, how mature of her. I rolled my eyes in response.

"Correct, I am an alien." Beck confirmed, I gasped, Sikowitz mentioned a twist.

"Don't hurt me! Please?" I begged, Jade cut in.

"Even though she's extremely annoying!"

"Fainting...'cause I can't breathe...your Earth's air." Beck fell to the ground dramatically.

"Gosh, it fainted!" I gasp, one hand flying up to my mouth, the other pointing at Beck.

Sikowitz interrupts us, "Excellent! Tori and Jade keep going! The next letter's H!"

"Hey why don't you jump over that cliff over there?" Jade hisses, hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at me in a way others would deem dangerous. I smiled.

"I think you should." I responded calmly, her nostrils flared in agitation.

"Just where did you come from?" she stepped closer to me.

"Kangaroos."

"Lousy animals, kangaroos. They're awkward and dirty."

"Maybe they've learned from you." I smirk at her, returning the evil look she had given me as the class gasps in shock.

Jades voice reveals her shock and anger too, "No one talks to me like that!"

I crossed my arms over my chest meeting her gaze, "Obviously someone should."

"Please run in front of a bus!" she yelled desperately.

"Quite obnoxious of you to say." I return.

"Really?"

"Sure was."

Jade snorts, "Thanks!" her word is sarcastic with enough poison and bite to put a deadly snake to shame.

"Up your nose I see boogers."

"Very clever."

"Wish you thought of that?"

"X marks the spot I'd like to punch!" she points at me, her voice and hand shaking.

"Your finger smells weird!" I laughed.

"Zero is what you are on a scale from one to ten!" she snapped. 

"And back to the letter A!" Sikowitz interrupts, but it falls on deaf ears because I'm already replying to Jade.

"As if I care what you think!" I yell back at her, I can see she's already cracking under the pressure of using the alphabet to insult me.

"Better watch yourself." She warns.

"Can't take it?" I asked sweetly.

"Don't push me!" her voice falters and I can see it in her face, one last button and she was done for. I smiled at her, batting my eye lashes.

"Eat your pants!" I yelled with laughter.

"No you eat your pants!" Jade's eyes go wide, realizing her mistake too late, "Wait!"

Sikowitz buzzes her out. "Sorry Jade! The next letter was-"

"F! I KNOW!" she glares at me and stomps off stage while Beck is beginning to 'wake up'. Inside I'm doing a happy dance, I beat Jade. I beat her at her own game, insulting people. I felt great and now I felt like I'd gotten pay back for the coffee on my head.

"Hey, the alien's moving!" Andre points out, I look down at Beck, hmm, was I really done with the payback? A grin pulled on my face, no, no I wasn't.

"Keep this thing going! G to you Tori!" Sikowitz adds.

"Get up alien!" I say, crouching down to help Beck to his feet.

"Head feels dizzy." The best idea on the planet popped into my head, only one thing could make Jade more angry then she already was, I smirked happily turning it into a smile as I looked up at Beck.

"I know what will make you feel better." Out of the corner of my eye I can see Jade's eyebrows raise and she's looking at me like she knows what I'm about to do.

"Jumping jacks?" Beck inquires, confused.

"Kiss me." I replied; Jade sat forward in her chair, eyes bulging out of her head angrily. She was thinking of ways to kill me no doubt, but I didn't care, right now was just about getting her back for that damn coffee on my head.

"Little weird." Beck says at first, then, "Let's do it." He stepped forward and put his hand on the back of my neck, leaning forward to kiss me; I cupped his cheek and met him half way. I could taste French Vanilla on his lips during the brief kiss.

He tasted like Jade.

When I pulled away I was grinning stupidly, "Man I love this school." I muttered, my eyes meeting Jade's. They were clouded over with obvious anger and I couldn't help but give her a challenging stare back.

Beck leaned toward me, "You're playing with fire Tori." He whispered, concern shinning through his eyes, I just smiled sweetly at him.

"I know exactly _what_I'm playing with Beck." I told him under my breath so nobody could hear me, "and sorry about your shirt yesterday. I owe you a new one." I stepped down off of the stage and picked up my bag, just as the bell rang, disappearing out the door.


	3. Hurt

**_Title_: Who Knew**

_**Chapter Two: **_**Hurt  
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**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately. **

**_A/N:_Just like in real high school, teenagers have potty mouths. Even though I try to use some of the random words Dan put in his shows.**

Jade refused to look at me the rest of the day, even though she, Beck, Cat, Robbie, his creepy puppet Rex, Andre and I had lunch together _and_ she sat beside me, but refused to look my way.

If her arm accidentally brushed mine, she'd recoil, lean into Beck and kiss him wrapping around him like he would solve all of her problems. Some people might think she was marking her territory, but I knew she was hiding behind him.

I wasn't sure why, or who (okay probably me), she was hiding from but it amused me to no end. I fought the laughter on my lips, but I was failing to keep it inside of me. Her leg brushed mine under the table and I heard her growl under her breath in frustration.

I bit down on my lip and moved closer to Andre to relieve her of her impending anxiety attack. "Torriii!" my sisters whining voice pierced my ears. I noticed three things happen when she approached, everyone fell silent, Jade shifted subtly toward me, and a headache pressed on my skull as her fingers dug into my shoulders, "Tori's friends."

"I'm not her friend." Jade snapped, like she did every time she had the opportunity, her eyes focusing on the coffee in her hand. Something in my stomach twisted at the words.

"Oh really? Because I seem to recall-." Jade and I jumped at the same time, I slapped my hand over Trina's mouth, and Jade threw her drink at Trina, making Trina flail, ending with her dumping her coffee on us, most importantly my shirt.

"Shit. Just look what you did you idiot!" Jade snarled, her hands rolling into fists. I dug my nails into Trina's arm, she cried in pain and I hauled her across the asphalt café, and more importantly away from the table full of people who didn't need to know about the things Trina almost spoke of.

"Keep your mouth shut. Nobody needs to know about Jade and I, got it? _Nobody._" Trina rolled her eyes at me, I dug my nails into her arm, she whined and tried to pry her arm out of my grip, I wouldn't let go until she agreed to keep quiet, and then I walked back toward the table, ignoring the fact that she said Jade and I were both alike.

"Come on Vega." Jade growled before I could make it to the table, she pulled me off my feet almost, shoving my bag into my chest and pushing me toward the bathroom, pushing harder then the last time each time I would pause until I was inside the bathroom.

She checked the stalls, flipped the door locked and spun to face me, her eyes burning with anger, "what the hell is that demented sister of yours thinking?" Jade screamed, her hands balling into fists.

"Oh would you stop being so _dramatic._" I snapped, rolling my eyes. _Why__the__hell__was__she__so__worried__about__anyone__finding__out?_

"Oh like you've run around telling people you know me!" Jade replied, giving me a pointed look. I let my bag drop to the floor, turning to the mirror and away from her, looking at my ruined shirt, "Don't ignore me, Vega." She growled.

"Look, I'm respecting the fact that you want to pretend you never met me, and that's just fine with me, but you need to stop all your jumpy crap. Everyone else might not know why, but they all know you're hiding behind Beck for some reason. Do you want them to find out?"

"No! I don't want them to know I was every friend's with someone as stupid as you!" she yelled back, I tried to hide it the best I could, but I was hurt by her words. Somewhere deep down in the part of my heart that still loved her, it hurt.

"The feeling is deeply mutual. And you owe me a new shirt." I told her calmly.

"You ruined my boyfriends, we're even." She snapped. I rolled my eyes, my fingers curling around the bottom of my shirt and pulling it up, "what are you doing?" she sounded freaked out and annoyed. It made me chuckle.

"I'm washing my shirt." I answered, tossing the stained shirt into the sink. I felt Jade's eyes raking over my stomach and back as I stood washing the shirt. I did have a hoodie in my bag, but making Jade uncomfortable was pretty funny because it was always a rare occurrence, "and we're not even, you ruined my shirt yesterday when you dumped coffee on my head. You owe me a new shirt, West." She was silent.

Eventually she stepped up to the sinks behind me, her own shirt dropping into my sink above mine, but unlike me, she had a tank top on. I pulled my shirt out of the sink and tossed it into another one before starting to wash hers.

She raised an eyebrow, obviously not expecting me to actually clean it. After I rang it out I slammed my hand down on the dryer button and hung the shirt over it so it would dry. I hung mine over the other one and then pulled my jacket out of my backpack. Her eyes were wide with shock when I pulled it out as I examined my damp bra.

I pulled the hoodie on and reached underneath it to unhook my sticky bra, dropping it in the sink as well. Trina owed me a new bra. She had ruined another bra, I don't know what her malfunction was but my last bra she spilled juice on. It's like she knew I was wearing one of my good bras and she just couldn't stand it.

"To-Vega." Jade corrected her, leaning against the sink to watch me, absently pushing the button on the heater when it shut off, she leaned over and hit the one on my shirt too, "I'm sorry about this, I really am. But I can't handle my ex-best friend walking into my life out of nowhere. I haven't ever told anyone-."

"About you being a lesbian once upon a time? I kind of figured that out on my own." I replied, picking up my bag off of the ground, ripping my shirt off of the dryer, grabbing my bra and marching toward the door, "I'm not stupid Jade, you know that."

I jerked the door open, stalking over to my locker angrily, I threw my shirt and bra into it, jerked out my books, and slammed the locker door closed, "well someone's a little bitter. I guess Jade has that effect on people, huh?" Andre was leaning up against one of the other lockers around mine.

"You have no idea." I muttered under my breath.

"You just met her, eventually she gets better." Andre tried to reason, shouldering his backpack and wrapping his free arm around my shoulder to push me toward our math class. I flopped uselessly into my chair and dropped my bag on the ground.

Andre sat beside me, trying to get me to smile, but it wasn't working. I was angry. And Jade simply calling me stupid had evoked this. What was wrong with me? I rested my head on my folded up arms and stared blankly at the math problems on the board that I was probably supposed to be doing.

"Miss Vega! If you're going to sleep during your first day in my class I'm going to have to give you detention, tomorrow after school." I nodded absently, sitting up and flipping open my book to act like I was paying attention.

"Who else can I ask for a ride?" I yelled after Trina, she just kept walking away. With a frown I shuffled into Sikowitz's class, dropping into a seat with a frown.

"You don't look happy." Jade's merry and sarcastic voice rolled through my head, I glanced up at her and narrowed my eyes at the smile on her face that made her cheeks push up in the nicest way.

_She_had great cheeks.

"Jade, play nice." Beck told her, pushing a coffee into her hands before he took a seat, "what's wrong Tori?" he spun in his chair so his folded arms were resting on the back and his legs were wrapped around it.

"Trina is ditching me after school because I got a frickin' detention, so I have to walk home." Beck's mouth turned up into a grin and he glanced at Jade who looked instantly annoyed, "What is it?" I pushed myself up in my chair to look between the pair of them.

"Well, I have detention this afternoon." His eyes were on Jade and so were mine, her eyebrows shot up, "So I can drive you home Tori." Anger flashed through Jade's eyes and the hand around her cup tightened, the top popped off and coffee sprayed on my hair.

"Quit getting coffee on me, West!" I snapped irritably.

The back door of the room burst open and Sikowitz strolled in, "Quick! You're passionately in love with the person you're looking at." Three things happened then, Jade's eyes widened for a millisecond, Beck's jaw dropped open, and almost in unison Beck and Jade dropped down in front of me, and said "I love you Tori/Vega."

_I_happened to be staring at Jade; I turned from once to the other, "I'm sorry Beck! But I'm in love with Jade!" he faked heart break while Jade grasped my hand, it sent shocks up my arm and my eyes snapped over to her, she was staring up at me with an intense look in her burnt green eyes.

"Vega, I want to be with you forever. I'm so in love with you!" Her eyes swung from me to Sikowitz who was making fun of Robbie who was acting in love with Cat who was in love with Rex. When she looked back at me I could see the laughter in her eyes.

"I'm in-."

"Okay, and we're done!" Sikowitz called laughter in his voice as he watched Robbie stare in shock at Cat who had been kissing Rex. Jade was too busy watching this happen to realize she was still holding my hand, and our clasped hands were resting on my thigh.

But when she did realize it, she violently jerked her hand out of mine and threw herself at Beck, snuggling against his side and kissing him until Sikowitz cleared his throat. Jade let out an annoyed sigh and leaned up against Beck, pulling out her phone.

Sikowitz went on and on about this stupid bird scene I had to do, but I wasn't listening. My arm was still tingling, my heart was hammering in my chest and all I could think about were the words I'd wanted to hear for so long, no matter what contexts they'd been said in, she fucking said she loved me.

_I was over reacting, I needed to stop. It was an acting exercise, she hates you Tori. Well, not hate, but she sure as hell doesn't even like you, let alone love you. You're getting worked up over nothing._

The bell ringing jarred me out of stupor, and I found I missed the whole freaking class, but I didn't care anymore. I picked up my bag and started walking out to lunch with everyone else.

"So Tor, you have any guesses what Sikowitz is going to have us do Friday?" Cat asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, stabbing at my salad, "What's Sikowitz having us do Friday?"

"He said we're going to be paired up for some team building thing." Andre shrugged in response, taking a bite out of his burrito. I was about to reply when a booted foot shoved at my hip until I was practically sitting on Robbie, who was elated when this happened, and Jade dropped down onto the bench next to the empty space that I used to be sitting on.

"I don't think so, West." I hissed, scooting back into my original spot, stabbing once more at the lettuce of my salad. Everyone gave me a shocked look, then looked a Jade as if waiting for her to stab me or something, and then pretended to be completely invested in whatever they were having for lunch.

"Watch yourself, Vega." Jade hissed, leaning to whisper it in my ear. I rolled my eyes at her and turned to Andre, asking him to tell me about whatever Sikowitz was having us do since I 'fell asleep'.

"Well he said Friday we're getting paired up with someone in the class as a team building exercise, laughed all creepy and said it would be a fun game." Andre shrugged; taking the final bite of his lunch as I finally stuffed the butchered lettuce into my mouth.

Cat started babbling about something that I didn't listen to because I was busy pulling out my script for the bird scene I had to do. It seemed simple enough, but I wasn't sure why exactly I needed to do it.

Aside from the fact that Sikowitz was a lunatic and is probably just doing this for some sort of amusement, the reasoning behind this still baffles me. All I wanted to do was be in Andre's play, not to perform some stupid bird scene.

Oh well.

"Today's detention will be held in room D14, please make sure to report for detention." Rang over the loud speaker right after the bell, the sound seemed to vibrate through my locker, and into my head.

A body slumped against the locker beside me, when I turned to look at it I found Beck looking down at me with a concerned look "are you alright? You look like somebody kicked your puppy."

"Well, if I was sad, that would probably make me even sadder." I replied, slamming my locker door shut and adjusting the bag on my shoulder, "I'm just tired and I don't want to go to this stupid detention."

"What'd you get detention for anyways?" Beck asked as we started walking toward room D14, he fell into step beside me.

"Spacing out during math class, on my first day attending class." I answered, "What about you?"

"Skipping class." He shrugged, pulling open the door for me; I stepped into the room ahead of him, looked around and headed straight toward the back of the room. Beck followed me and took the very last seat in the back beside me.

We sat in relative silence, I was working on my math homework and Beck was working on a script for one of his classes. Occasionally he'd ask me for help with a line or I'd ask him for help with my math homework.

After two hours of sitting there bored out of my mind, we were finally dismissed to leave. "I just need to go get something out of my locker and then I'll take you home." Beck told me, pulling my arm and dragging me across the halls to his locker, which was about five down and the bottom row from mine.

It was a clear locker, you could see right through it. All of his books and an extra shirt were clearly visible inside it. He pulled out a few books and put a few more back before leading me out the door.

"The passenger door only unlocks from the inside, hold on." Beck told me, slipping into the cab of his truck through the driver's seat, he unlocked it and pushed it open before beckoning me inside the car.

I hopped up into the cab and pulled the door shut, setting my backpack at my feet. He started his truck, flipped on the radio to a rock station, and backed out of his parking space just as his phone started ringing.

"Shit that's Jade. Can you answer it for me?" he asked, "my phones in my backpack."

I flipped off my seat belt and reached down to grab Beck's backpack, rifling through it until I found it. A picture of Jade smiled back at me on the screen, "nice picture." I commented before hitting accept and speaker phone.

"Hey babe, Tori's in the car, you're on speaker phone." He sounded way too happy about it, for some reason. Almost as if he was teasing Jade.

"Oh great. Well hurry up and drop her off, I'm waiting at your place." And then she hung up. The words stung a distant place in my heart at a distant memory of those words. A distant memory of Jade and I going to my house when my parents and Trina were out and just snuggling on my bed kissing and watching some horror movie.

"Tori?" Beck called, my eyes lifted from his pearphone, which I had been staring at absently, to his concerned face, "did you hear a word I said?"

"No, sorry I didn't." I shook my head to clear my thoughts and tossed Beck's phone back into his bag, "what were you saying?"

"I said I probably shouldn't be telling you this, because I'm supposed to be Jade's boyfriend and all, but she told me about you. I saw how hurt you were when you came out of the bathroom, was it because you thought she hadn't told anybody?"

"What exactly did she tell you?" I asked, worried that if I said too much Jade would hunt me down and murder me in my sleep.

"That you two used to be best friends a long time ago. This one?" I glanced out the window; we were outside my house now. I reached down and grabbed my bag.

"Right. Thanks for the ride Beck, and trying to make me feel better." I hopped out of the car, pushed the door shut and walked quickly up to my front door, slamming it open and shut behind me before running upstairs and taking solace in my bed.

I had thought I was over Jade, or at least I could deal with being around her and not being her friend or her girlfriend, but the more I was around her the more hurt I was. With every kiss she and Beck shared a hole in my heart started getting bigger.

I told myself over and over that it was because she was my first love, and that first loves never really mean anything. I'd get over it. I had boyfriends on and off, but I never felt anything near the way I felt with Jade when I was with them.

Kissing them was boring, pointless, there was nothing too it. Just lips on lips tongues mingling. With Jade it had been passion, fireworks, warmth in my stomach, curling of my toes, comfort, everything good about her in her soft pink lips melding with mine.

I would never feel that again. Not with anybody except for Jade and I would never have Jade again. There was no chance for me ever being with Jade again. I curled up on my side and pulled my pillow into my chest, curling into a tight ball around it and burying my face in the fabric.

I must've fallen asleep at some point during my crying, because the next thing I knew my mom was knocking on my door and I was hanging half off my bed, my eyes red and sore and my throat aching.

"Tori hunny, your father and sister are out, I got some pizza. Come downstairs, you look like you need to talk." She gave me a warm smile as I rolled out of bed and followed her down the stairs into the kitchen.

As soon as we sat down on the couch words came pouring out of my mouth, I told her why I got in the fight with Trina (something I had refused to tell her or dad since it happened) about what happened with Jade, and Beck, and about Trina ruining my only good bra (she offered to take me to the mall tomorrow to get a new one since I was wearing a bra size two cups too small) and she told me that I'd never 'get over it' but it'd eventually stop hurting so much.

Of course I didn't tell her about my feelings toward Jade, the whole being in love with her and about us dating, she never knew that and I was scared to find out what would happen when she did find out. We never really talked about that kind of thing, I was too scared to breach the subject and I doubt it ever crossed their minds.

After we ate we watched Easy A and then I went upstairs to do my homework, I showered, practiced the bird scene (which I had to do for the third time now) and then I crawled into bed to prepare for the fun that would be tomorrow.


	4. Partnered Up

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Three: _Partnered Up**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately. **

**_A/N: _Wasn't gunna pair them up, but it just happened. Enjoy!**

_Something must've bit Trina in the ass this morning, _I decided as I slowly trudged down the sidewalk toward school. She'd left me at home because I was taking too long to put on my shoes. I'd posted a status on theSlap complaining on my way as a distraction from the looming storm the weather channel had promised.

I was in no way even thinking about trying to swing a ride from someone, I didn't even consider that, but when Beck's truck rolled up beside me and he told me to get I was smacking myself for not thinking about finding another ride.

Jade was glaring at me from the passenger seat as Beck leaned over to push the door open, "just ignore her and get in Tori, or you're going to get caught in the rain." Beck told me, sitting back.

I thought about protesting but thunder boomed through the sky loud enough to shake the ground, I tossed myself into the cab without a second thought. Beside me Jade was chuckling as I tried to hide my shaking hands inside my hoodie.

"Still scared of storms Vega?" she teased mirthfully. I ignored her. She knew I was, and always would be, frightened of storm thanks to her. When we were 6 it started thundering at the beach a few blocks from our houses, then the rain poured down.

We were heading quickly to the house when lightening struck and Jade decided she wanted to find out what lightening did to sand, and being the devoted friend I was, I followed her.

She was admiring the sand that she'd seen struck and lightening hit the ground a few feet away from us, I could smell the burning and I ran screaming down the road back toward my house shaking like a leaf the whole time. It was a wonder I didn't fall down.

As soon as I got home I dove into my bed cowering. Jade came in a few minutes after I had and crawled under the covers, pulling me into a hug, apologizing again and again until I stopped shaking. Ever since then I'd uncontrollably shake whenever there was a storm.

As we drove thunder shook the car and lightening cracked through the sky. I was shaking more and more as the storm got worse. I could hardly see the car in front of us; it's lights were a red glowing blur in front of us, I was thankful I wasn't driving.

After a particularly loud crack of thunder that made a scream rip from my throat, Jade leaned forward and turned up the radio, when she sat back her arm was pressed up against mine. She didn't look toward me, but she leaned a bit closer each time thunder cracked and slowly my shaking subsided to a slight fidgeting in my fingers.

Through the ride Beck tried to keep up small talk, but eventually gave up because neither of us would reply. Jade was just being a pain in the ass and I was worried about my voice shaking and squeaking, not needing to be more embarrassed then I already was.

At the school Beck dropped Jade and I off at the over hang so we stayed dry and I sprinted inside ahead of her. I searched through my backpack until I found my cell phone and I texted Andre to meet me in class.

I had to act out my stupid bird scene and I needed to set up the stage, Andre had offered to help me hang up the backdrop. I went and changed afterwards, when I walked into class Sikowitz had me start right away, and afterwards when I asked if I passed I said no, snapping at him that I thought I did good.

Then he started clapping, slowly followed by a few of my classmates. He explained that the whole point of the bird scene was so that I learned I needed to be proud of my performance.

"Okay, you can go change now." He said, waving me out of the room. I picked up my bag and walked into the bathroom, locking myself in the handicapped stall so I had room to change.

I untied the skirt and let it pool around my ankles, kicking off the ugly shoes I'd been wearing as well. I pulled off the shirt and folded it up, stuffing it back in the bag I'd had. The music in the stall beside me got suddenly louder when the song changed. It sounded like a rock song.

I couldn't see who was in the stall beside me; they had their feet pulled up onto the toilet with them or something. Whatever, it wasn't my problem. I stuffed the skirt into the bag as well, pulling my shoes, jeans and black tank top out of the bag.

I shimmied into my jeans, slipped on my converse and went to pull on my shirt when my beloved blue pearphone, which had been tucked into my bra, fell out and skittered across the ground into the next stall.

I hastily pulled my shirt on, shut the bag and hauled it over my shoulder, unlocking the door to the stall and knocking on the door for the stall next to mine. The person didn't seem to hear me over their music so I waited for the song change, and then banged my hand violently on the door.

The music shut off and I heard the person get up, it was too late for me to recoil when the black Doc Martians peeped out from under the door and Jade jerked it open, narrowing her eyes at me.

"What?" she growled.

"My phone fell and slid into your stall." I replied, pointing to it. Jade turned her head to look at it, her mouth pulling into a scowl. She bent down to get it, whipping her hair around so fast it was a wonder it didn't hit my face.

She flipped her hair back around and this time the strands danced across my cheeks, she held the blue device out to me like it was garbage, but I was too distracted watching the way the waves of her hair tumbled down her shoulders and over the swell of her breasts, falling at the top of her ribcage.

"Quit staring Vega." She hissed, shoving the phone toward me.

"Sorry." I whispered, taking the phone. Our fingers brushed and her hand recoiled quickly, like she had been burned.

I slid my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, adjusted my bag and walked quickly toward the bathroom door. But just as I was pulling it open a pale black nailed hand shoved the door shut. Jade's body was pressed up against my back.

"What do you want _now_?" I hissed, craning my neck to look over at her. Her face was mere inches from mine; her mouth parted slightly her eyes roaming my face, looking for something. I couldn't figure it out, "Jade?" I squeaked.

She pushed on my arm and spun my around, slamming my back against the door, her mouth crashing down on mine. Her lips tasted like cherry, but the rest of the kiss tasted like French vanilla coffee. Her lips were soft, but the kiss was rough. Her teeth caught my bottom lip and nipped it hard, I was sure there would be blood.

Her hands on my hips shoved me up against the door while her body pressed flush against mine, her teeth nipped and pulled on my bottom lip until I knew there was a few cuts on my lips, her mouth then trailed down my jaw and neck, she sucked on my neck, on the space just where my neck met my shoulder, bit down hard enough to make me cry out and then she pulled me away from the door and shoved me until I fell to the ground, my tailbone smacking hard against the tile.

Angry tears were spilling down her face, "Just stay out of my head. And away from me! Why did you have to come back!" she yelled, glaring down at me, her jaw shaking as well as her clenched fists.

She spun quickly, picking up her bag as she did, yanked open the door and ran out of the bathroom. I sat on the ground stunned for a few minutes before I finally remembered I was needed in class, after adjusting my hair, cleaning up my lips, and pulling my hair over my bruised neck, I returned to the room.

I pushed the door to the classroom open and everyone's eyes swung toward me, "Ah! Tori good! Just in time, go sit over there with your partner Beck." I nodded silently and sat down beside Beck, feeling Jade's angry glare on me the whole time.

"Now as I was saying, you and your partner have to write a script based on the relationship and feeling you pull out of the hat, it's due tomorrow. The hats are going around as we speak." Sikowitz said, then dropped down into a chair in the back of the room and started drinking his coconut.

"I can come over to your place after school if you want." Beck offered, "we can work on the script and run over it, it's up to you."

"Sounds fine with me. I'll text you my address after school." I told him, taking the hat from Cat, who was sitting in front of us with Jade. I snatched a paper out of the hat and passed it on as Beck snatched a paper out of his hat, "best friends."

"In love." Beck supplied.

"Fantastic."

I'd left school early and went home and crashed in my bed, I was still sound asleep when I heard Trina scream, and then her feet stomped toward my room and the door was pushed open, "Uh, are you sure Trina…" Beck was standing on the other side of the doorway.

"She'll get up." Trina shrugged and walked away.

"It's fine Beck." I called, stretching and sitting up in my bed, "flip the light on." I told him as he stepped through the door. He did as I asked and then walked over and sat down in my desk chair while I tried to wake myself up.

He was looking around my overly-girly room quickly, his eyes landing on my cork board. There were pictures of all of my ex's and old friends up there. Including more then 3 of Jade.

His eyes were glued on a picture, "you can take it down if you wanna get a closer look." I told him, rolling out of my bed finally.

He glanced over at me, "I don't need to, Jade has the same picture on her book shelf." He replied, the hummingbird living in my stomach fluttered a little. Jade still had a picture of me in her room, "ready to get started?"

"Yep." I walked over to my second desk chair and dropped down into it, turning on my laptop while Beck got out his notebook so we could work on our assignment. Jade was brought up again while we were writing, and soon we were acting it out.

Until my phone ringing interrupted us. I walked over to my bed and scooped it up, hitting accept before checking to see that it was a blocked number, "Hello?"

"Where is he?" a familiar voice snapped in my ear.

"Jade?" I asked into the receiver, ignoring her question.

"Where is he Vega?" she sounded more annoyed then freaked out.

"Why is your number blocked on my phone? And how'd you get _my _number?" I countered.

"What's Jade want?" Beck asked, he was scribbling something down in his notebook.

"To know where you are." I replied, dropping down on my bed, "is that a bed Vega?" she asked at the same time I replied, "Yes, West, it is. I sat down."

"Tell her I'm at your place and I'll see her later." Beck told me, Jade hung up before I could say anything, so I tossed my phone behind me and Beck and I got back to work. Twenty minutes later Andre showed up so we could work on a math assignment and a music assignment he needed done.

Beck left around 9, and then Andre left around 9:30, I went upstairs, showered, changed, finished up my homework, dried my hair and then crawled back in bed to go to school the next day.

Jade spent every class I had with her glaring at me, only stopping when she and Cat had to do their skit and Beck and I had to run through ours. I couldn't figure out why she was glaring. Was she jealous of me? Because I spent time with Beck?

_Stay out of my head._ The words rung absently through my head, did she really mean she was thinking about me? Or was she just being a bitch? "Alright!" Sikowitz shouted loudly, "Now we'll be doing another project-and no complaining!" he said the last part in a mock complementary voice.

"First, I'll pull names from at hat to partner you up!" he starts partnering up everyone in the class until there are four of us left, Sinjin, Eli, Jade and I. "next we have Sinjin." _Please, please, please pull Jade's name, or mine even I don't care. _"And Eli."

"Chiz."

"Shit."

"That means Jade and Tori, you're together."

"Yeah, no chiz!" Jade snapped sarcastically, slumping down in her chair with a little pout.

Sikowitz ignored her outburst, "now you will be stuck with each other for forty eight hours." Groans went around the room. I was suddenly thankful I wasn't with Sinjin, "you will need to be able to imitate your partner by the end of the forty eight hours."

Well, I knew I could imitate Jade, and I bet she could imitate me with little problem. So we wouldn't really have to spend time together right? I don't think I'd survive the weekend with Jade. Not together forty-eight hours.

"You will go to one partner's house one night, and the other the next. Then arrive at school dressed an acting like your partner. You will have to act like them all day." People were complaining, especially Andre who didn't want to act like Robbie. I sniggered when I realized Beck was paired with Cat, "and I'll be calling a random times to make sure you're always together."

"We'll to your place first Vega." Jade muttered behind me, "we're starting this Saturday, right Sikowitz?"

"Yes Jade, you get your Friday night to yourself." Sikowitz said in a mocking tone, "now I want you all out of my room!" he said, "go to lunch or something."

We only had like two minutes of class left, so everyone got up and headed out to the asphalt café. I stopped at the grub truck to get a salad, "Hey Tori can you get Jade and I burritos?" Beck asked, "I've got to go finish my math homework and she's got her Spanish homework."

"Sure thing Beck." I stepped up as Beck walked away and ordered my salad and their burritos, paid and wandered over to our table. Nobody was sitting there except for Jade and Beck. Nervously I stepped up to the table, peering around to try and find everyone else. They were nowhere in sight.

I set my salad down on the opposite side of Jade and sat down, passing the pair their lunch. Beck glanced up and muttered a thanks and Jade ignored it. I silently opened my salad and started eating, pulling out my phone and scrolling through my messages.

Eventually Beck shut his math book and started eating his burrito, "so where did everyone run off to?" I asked, Beck glanced at Jade. She was glaring angrily at her Spanish book.

"They offered her help and she bit their heads off." Beck supplied, "I've gotta go turn this in. I'll be right back, babe." He pressed a kiss to the side of her head, gave me an apologetic glance and then walked toward the building.

"Jade…" I called after she screamed and balled her paper up, "do you need some help?"

"No Vega. I don't need any help." Jade snarled, I ignored her angry tone and moved to sit next to her, peering down at the page in her book, "Vega." She warned, her voice a hiss. I ignored her and snatched up her pencil, un-balling her paper to look at her answers.

"You were doing just fine Jade." I told her, "the only bit wrong is this line. You said that you wash your washing machine with your clothes, instead of washing your clothes with your washing machine. It'd be 'yo lavo mi ropa en la lavadora' not 'yo me lavo la lavadora con la ropa'. Other then that your fine."

She grunted in response while I erased her sentence and wrote the correct one down, she leaned over to look at it and then asked me how to say the next thing, and in a few minutes we had all of her work down and I sat back in my original spot to finish my salad and scroll through my status feed on theSlap.

"Thanks." Jade mumbled after awhile, pulling her burrito box open. I shrugged and stuffed the last piece of my salad in my mouth. I tossed the box into the garbage and sat back down at the same time Beck and Cat returned to the table.

"Hey Jade! Tori!" she chirped, and soon everyone else gathered around the table. Plans were discussed around the table. Cat was stuck watching her brother, Robbie had to go to his Grandma's house, Andre was writing a song and Beck was going to an Aunts house, and I was going to the mall with my mom.

When the bell rang we all filed into our separate classes, Andre, Cat and I went to Math. We had to work on a 50 question assignment for the rest of class and I wasn't anywhere near done by the time the bell rang to dismiss us to our 6th class of the day.

Thankfully mine was just History and I could just space out during class, since all we were doing was watching a dumb movie. Once the bell finally rang I slung my bag over my shoulder and ran outside to Trina's car.

She was already gone when I got there, "I'm going to kill her." I muttered under my breath, letting my bag drop to the ground as I peeled off my jacket and shirt so I was just in my tank top. It was way too hot to be walking around with my jacket on.

I stuffed them into my bag, put it back on my shoulder, put my headphones in my ears and started my music before beginning my walk home. I was barely 6 minutes away from the school when a car rolled up next to me. It was a white Ford truck. The passenger window rolled down.

"Come on Vega, I'll give you a ride home." Jade offered, I looked at the car, then back at the sidewalk bathed in sunlight before me. I didn't really want to walk home, but did I want to trap myself in a car with Jade?

I found my hand pulling the door open before my mind could answer and I hopped in beside her, pulling the door closed and clicking my seatbelt on silently, she asked me for my address and the rest of the trip was made in silence.

She pulled into my driveway, "Sikowitz said we start at midnight. So I'll be back around then I guess." She told me, her eyes trained on my garage door, her fingers drumming on her steering wheel.

"Just call me when you're on your way so I make sure I'm awake. Since you obviously have my number." I slip out of the car and head up to the front door, the second I walk in I'm greeted by the angry screams of my mother, yelling at Trina.

"I'm home." I muttered, neither of them heard me, and I didn't really care. I trudged upstairs, dropped my bag in my desk chair and peered around the room, where was Jade going to sleep?

My eyes scanned the messy floor, the messy bed and my messy window seat area in front of my window, and I had a feeling no matter what I said somehow Jade would make _me _sleep there. At least it had a pull out bed under it.

I slowly cleaned up my room, tossing my dirty clothes into my hamper, returning books to their shelves, putting pictures of her I'd had out up into the back of my closet so she might not find them, and then I vacuumed, by the time I was done Trina had already stormed into her room and mom had passed by to see what I was doing.

Once I put the vacuum cleaner away I made my way downstairs to find my mom so we could go shopping, "can you drive sweetheart? I have a big headache."

I shrugged and took the keys from her as we left the house, leaving dad in charge of Trina and her temper tantrum. The whole way to the mall I tried to figure out how to explain to mom what my assignment was, and eventually I just blurted the words "Jade's coming over tonight."

"Jade's coming over? I thought she hated you." Mom asked, sitting up to turn down the radio.

"She does, we have to do this assignment for Sikowitz's class. We have to be able to act like each other, by spending forty-eight hours together. So Jade's coming here tonight and then I'm going to her house tomorrow."

"Alright. What time will she be here?"

"The forty-eight hours starts at Midnight, so she said she'll be over then." I answered, flicking on the turn signal and pulling into the mall parking lot, "you're okay with that right?"

"Sure sweetheart, just don't make too much noise." I nod and pull into a parking space, shutting off the headlights, then the car and undoing my seatbelt before we head up to the mall entrance.


	5. The Vega Home

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Four: _The Vega Home**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately. **

**_A/N: _Thanks for all of the positive reviews on this! I'm sorry this took so long to post my Internet crashed, and I couldn't get a hold of anybody to fix it.**

I fell asleep a little after 10:30, curled up in a tight ball in the center of my bed. By then I'd totally forgotten Jade was coming over, so when my phone went off I nearly screamed. I rolled out of my bed and stumbled across the room, picking it up and pressing it to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked my voice groggy with sleep, my throat sore.

"Vega, I'm almost at your house." Jade's voice came through the other end of my phone, she sounded annoyed but otherwise awake, _why was Jade coming over?_ _Oh yeah, Sikowitz project_, "Vega?" Jade snapped.

"Yeah, I'll go let you in…" I mumbled rubbing my eyes, she hung up and I shoved my feet into a pair of slipper boots and padded quickly downstairs, flopping down on my couch and turning to face the clock. It was 11:45.

Headlights lit up the multicolored glass around my door signaling Jade's arrival, I marveled at the colors bouncing around my otherwise dark living room before I pushed off of my couch and walked over to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open as Jade's car shut off. She took about five minutes to get out of her car and make it up to the door her eyes on the ground.

She glanced over my outfit and smirked, "nice PJ's Vega." She teased stepping through the door. I sighed and glanced down at the frilly black tank top I was wearing. It had color splashes on it, and the pair of neon blue lace shorts I had pulled on after my shower were very short and my neon pink underwear were rather visible through them.

"I forgot you were coming over." I replied, rubbing my eyes and quietly shutting the door, flicking the lock automatically, "everyone's asleep so keep quiet. Do you want something to drink or eat before we head upstairs?"

"No." Jade murmured her eyes scanning the living room. Probably thinking that it looked just like the living room in my old house. My mom and dad bought a house that was pretty much identical to our old one, with one key difference. My bedroom wasn't shared with Trina anymore.

I led Jade up the stairs slowly, dragging my feet as I covered my yawn with my hand. Jade followed me, her boots somehow silent on the steps, "You remember my moms rules right?"

"No smoking, no drinking, no food in your room, water only, no showering before 7 in the morning, no food after 3 am or before 7 am." Jade recited, "no TV in the living room after midnight, no boys in your room with the door closed."

"Good." I pushed the door to my room open and flicked on the light, "you can toss your bag wherever, there's a pull out under my window…I'll just pull it out for you." I muttered, walking over to it as the door shut behind me.

I unlocked the pullout drawer and yanked the bed out, fixing the sheet and tossing a pillow on top of it, "No stars on the ceiling Vega?" Jade said after a moment, I heard her bag drop.

"They're in the closet." I replied dryly, "the bathrooms across the hall."

Jade nods, pulls something out of her bag and disappears backwards out of the room without another word. I sigh and crawl back into my bed, sinking down into the mattress with a relieved sigh, curling up around my second pillow.

I hardly noticed Jade came back in until I heard the door shut with a soft click, when I glanced up she was standing at my desk, her back to me digging through her bag. She had on a pair of black shorts with what looked like cookies on them, her hair was tossed up into a haphazard ponytail and she was in a tank top.

She spun around her phone charger in her hand, I pointed to the strip plug next to my bed, and she silently walked over to it and plugged in her phone without a word. Her makeup had been all washed off and it was a wonder how innocent it made her look. The makeup was one of the things that helped her pull of her scary look.

"My phones on loud in case Sikowitz calls," She warned me, "sorry if it goes off."

"Whatever. Shut the light off." I mumbled, burying my face in the pillow my head was on. Jade obliged and flicked the light off after she closed her bag, "you can close the curtains if you want."

"Not scared of the dark anymore Vega?" Jade teased as she cross the room to my closed my curtains, cutting off the flow of the moonlight and submerging us in total darkness. I heard a thud then a slight creak and rustling blankets before everything was silent and I fell back asleep.

You've Got a Friend in Me blared through my room.The foreign voice startled me awake, my eyes snapped open and I saw the distant light of a phone glowing somewhere. I pushed myself into a sitting position.

Jade was still dead asleep, "Jade, Jade!" she didn't wake up. I swear the girl could sleep through a war. I reached over and picked up the phone, "hello?"

"Jade?" I glanced at the screen; it was a call from her house, "Jade?" a male voice called through, slowly my brain clicked, her little brother, Tyler. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, yawning.

"Tyler?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes, "what time is it?" I glanced around, looking for my alarm clock. I'd thrown it somewhere the morning before; it was probably under my bed or something since I hadn't seen it when I cleaned.

"It's just after 7, where's Jade?" he informed me before returning his original question, "I talk to her every morning."

"She is dead asleep. Are you alright?" I asked, swinging my legs out of the bed.

"I'm fine Tori." My eyebrows shot up slowly on my face, he remembered me?, "can you just wake her up?"

"If I die I'm holding you responsible." I told him spinning until my feet landed on the floor, I heard him chuckle before I shuffled toward the bed. I tripped on the edge of the pullout and tumbled down on top of the bed, landing on Jade's pointy elbow. The air rushed out of my lungs, as Jade instantly awoke and sprung to action, rolling over and slamming me down on the bed by my throat.

She was really paranoid, if you touched her while she slept she'd attack you but it was basically the only way to wake her up unless she woke on her own. "Jade, it's just me. Tyler called." I managed to tell her, holding up the phone. She snatched it away from me, pressing it to her ear, the glow from it lighting up her face as she hovered above me, she was still holding my throat.

"You okay Tyler?" she asked, her voice was soft and the glare I knew was in her eyes when I scared her awake dissipated as she spoke with her brother, finally rolling over and letting me get out of the bed and out of the hold.

"I'm going to shower…" I told her, I doubted she was listening but I didn't care. I padded silently out of the room, across the hall and into the bathroom, closing the door behind me with a silent click.

Nobody else seemed to be up, thankfully. It was Saturday so Trina wouldn't wake up until the crack of noon; dad was working until 10 at the Station and mom would still be asleep until 8 or 9.

I flipped the lock on the door and pulled a towel out of the cupboard. Thankfully mom had done laundry yesterday, leaving me with a fresh towel for this morning. I set the towel on the small rack beside the shower, turned on the water to warm up and peeled off my clothes, tossing them into the hamper.

I pulled the little thing to start the showerhead and stepped willingly under the warm spray. I took extra time to massage the vanilla shampoo into my hair, slowly rinsing it out and repeating the process with the conditioner. The scent of cocoanut filled the bathroom when I put the body wash on my washcloth and slowly scrubbed my body clean, slowly rinsing off.

I stayed in the stream for a bit longer then needed and then shut off the water, twisted the water from my hair and pushed the curtain open, grabbing the towel and wrapping it around my body as I stepped out and over to the sink where my face wash was. I quickly took care of that, toweled my face dry and put on some lotion, turning to leave the bathroom and dress in my room.

Then my brain slowly started working, my clothes were in my bedroom. So was Jade. Crap. Well, my robe was hanging on the bathroom door, and it was a lot longer then the short white towel I was currently using.

I slipped the robe off of the door, dropped my towel and pulled the robe on, using the towel to dry my hair as I walked across the hall pushing my door open. Jade had her eye closed, and if I hadn't known any better I'd swear she was sleeping, but her face was too tense.

"The showers available if you want." I offered, slowly making my way to the large walk in closet next to my door, Jade cracked an eye open, the burnt green seemed to be black now and those eyes traveled from my legs and up to my knees where the robe started, traveling up until they met my own eyes.

"I showered before I came over." She supplied, I nodded and pulled open the closet door, flicking the light on, stopping only to grab and a pair of underwear and my new bra from my dresser before closing myself in the closet.

I hung the robe up on the door and put on my bra and underwear while I looked around at my clothes. It was supposed to be hot today, so I grabbed a pair of jean shorts that were folded up on the shelf in my closet and pulled them on, followed by a purple tanktop.

Once I was dressed I started to push the door open, but faltered, "Jade? You're not getting dressed are you?" no answer, "Jade?" I called again. Once more I was met with silence. I pushed the door open a crack and peeked out.

Jade was lying on the bed again, this time asleep.

With a slight frown I pushed the door fully open and stepped into my room, scooping up my own phone to check my messages. I had three messages, one from Andre wishing me luck with my weekend, and two from my dad. One saying goodnight and that he loved me, and the other saying good morning and wishing me a good day.

I texted him back and asked when he'd be home. It was a Saturday tradition that I made him breakfast when he got back from work. He said he'd be home in twenty minutes. With one last glance at Jade I texted her a message to come downstairs when she was ready, pulled on some socks, and padded silently down the stairs to figure out what was for breakfast.

Mom was surprisingly sitting in the living room watching something on the TV when I finally reached the bottom steps, stumbling and nearly kicking the piano bench in front of me, "morning." I called, she turned her head to look at me, sleep still etched in her features, "coffee?" she nods.

I pick my iPod up off of the counter and place the buds in my ears, going about my normal routine of making coffee for my mom, me and dad, and after a thought, Jade. While the coffee brewed and pulled out a breakfast cook book and flipped through meal ideas, settling on pancakes, bacon, eggs and sausage.

I relayed the idea to my mom when I handed her, her coffee. She nodded and then greedily drank down her coffee. As I walked back to the kitchen my phone buzzed in my pocket, _I'll be down in 5 minutes. _I had no clue why Jade texted me to tell me, and I certainly was thankful, that way I'd know to listen for her.

The girl was like a cat, silent as she moved. She needed a bell.

I set my phone down, turned up the volume on my iPod and pulled out my flavored creamer from the fridge, French Vanilla and Carmel. I made my cup first and then made Jade's pouring about two teaspoons of the French Vanilla and one of the Carmel in with three spoonfuls of sugar.

When I turned to look at the stairs Jade was standing there, looking uncertainly between where I was and my mom, "made you coffee." I told her, her eyes flicked to me and then with her shoulders slumped she walked across the living room and into the kitchen, "It's still hot." I told her, plunking an ice cube in my cup.

She nodded raising the cup to her mouth, and as if it was a third or forth thought, she paused, "thanks." She mumbled. I nodded slowly, raising my own cup to my mouth, I glanced at my mom as she made her way toward her bedroom, glancing at Jade for a moment and giving a little wave before she continued into her bedroom.

"I'm making my dad some breakfast, if you'd like to help. If not I'm sure you can blankly stare at the TV with my mom." I told her, my eyes staring into the milk chocolate colored coffee in my cup.

"Depends what your making. I'm great at cooking bacon, other then that I'm helpless." Jade chuckled, it was shocking to hear and the look on her face told me she was mentally slapping herself.

"I remember vividly, those burnt pancakes that almost burnt the house down?" I teased lightly, a small ball of fear tangled in my stomach. Jade's eyes flicked up to my face, the corners of her mouth twisting into a smile.

"I was trying to make you breakfast for your birthday, you dad is a hopeless cook." Jade laughed taking a gulp of her coffee.

"I find that extremely offensive." Jade visibly jumped when my dad's voice broke the silence in the house, my eyes flicked up to him, I set my cup down and I dashed over to him, tossing m arms around his shoulders in a hug, "Hey sweetheart." He kissed the top of my head.

When I looked back at Jade I saw a twinge of pain flitter across her face. One I used to see just after her parents divorce whenever my parents seemed to do something family happy. I felt a little guilty, like I always had, that I could do nothing to make her feel better.

"You did almost burn the house down with her though." I pointed out as we moved closer to the kitchen, "dad, you remember Jade West, right?"

His eyebrows shot up and he looked down at Jade for a moment before giving her a small hug. She looked freaked out, it was all over her face, but a bit of something seemed to flicker in her eyes, "It's nice to see you again Jade, when did you move out of Florida?"

"Not long after you guys actually." She replied, "I had no clue we'd moved so close to you guys though. Not until I saw Trina at school when I started there." I passed my dad his cup of coffee just as I finished mine.

"I'll start cooking now, so get out. Jade, did you wanna help?" I asked, shooing my dad away. He rolled his eyes at me but left the kitchen. Jade finished her coffee, setting the cup in the sink, rinsing it out and then setting it in the dishwasher automatically, followed by mine.

"I'll help." She confirmed, I pushed her strange behavior out of my mind and pulled my hair up into a ponytail, Jade mimicked me and I pulled out all of the ingredients. We washed up and then together mixed up the pancake batter, managing to make a minimal mess, except for the bit of flour I accidentally got on Jade, leading to her taking some in her hand and blowing it on me, followed by me returning the gesture, until my mom came in to stop the soon to be messy fight.

"Do you mind setting the table, Jade?" my mom asked before disappearing again, Jade nodded and silently moved to get out plates, cups, silver and napkins. She still remembered exactly where everything was. It was shocking.

She silently set the table, also putting out butter, syrup, sorghum, and honey. After that she went back to make the bacon, standing beside me while I cooked the eggs and sausage.

We didn't talk and Jade stood like a cement pole, her shoulders squared and hardly moving unless she was turning the bacon. She tried desperately not to let her shoulders brush mine, and if it happened she jumped.

"I'm sorry about your wakeup call this morning." I muttered after a long silence. My mom and dad had both retreated to the patio to talk, leaving Jade and I alone in the kitchen.

"It's fine Vega, you only scared the living crap out of me." She replied, "did I hurt you?"

"A little bit, but it's fine. I honestly was going to walk over and shake your arm and jump away. But I tripped." I informed her, she glanced over at me and then shook her head, a small smirk on her face as she silently flipped the bacon.

"So, what other goody-good things are you having us do today, Vega?" Jade asked. Currently she was stretched out on the pullout bed, typing away on her phone. She glanced up briefly, her eyes scanning across my face before she started typing again.

"Nothing really." I replied, "I've got no plans today actually. Hey, you didn't suddenly start going to church on Sunday's did you?" I inquired.

"No, Vega, I didn't." she replied, her voice having an angry tone, "why?"

"Because I need to know what to pack." I replied carelessly, rolling over so I was staring up at the ceiling. After a few minutes I rolled out of my bed and stretched, "I usually go on a walk after breakfast, do you mind?"

"Nope." She replied, rolling out of the pullout, shoving her feet into her boots, and standing up, pocketing her phone, "after all that food this morning I was wondering how you managed to stay so skinny."

I rolled my eyes, pocketing my phone as we walk downstairs, "mom! Going for a walk!" I yelled, pulling open the front door, slipping my keys into my pocket before I stepped out.

Jade followed me silently, still typing away on her phone. We walked in silence for about twenty minutes when my phone started ringing loudly, an obnoxious sound reserved for one person, "what do you want Trina?" I snapped.

"Mom said you were out, get me some ice cream." She replied.

"Kiss my ass." I retorted, Jade snorted.

I clicked end on my phone, shoving it back in my pocket as we continued down the sidewalk toward the park. It was too early for people to actually be at the park, so we wandered through the paths in silence.

About an hour into the walk Jade's phone rang, "Great, its Sikowitz." She muttered, hitting accept and pressing the speaker phone button, "Please tell me you're calling to tell us we don't have to do this."

"No. is Tori with you?"

"Yep." I answered, burying my hands in my pockets.

"Alright." The line went dead and Jade went back to texting whoever it was she was texting. My guess would be Beck.

Around 11 we were lounging around at m house, we really had nothing better to do. I was texting Andre, who was stuck at Robbie's house. Apparently Robbie's parents were freaks, and earlier he had to go to Robbie's grandmothers house. Andre said that he thought his grandmother was a nut, but Robbie's grandmother took the cake.

"Hey Vega." Jade suddenly said, dropping down onto my bed beside me, "you serious about those stars in your closet?"

"I was." I answered, hitting send on my latest text, "why?"

"Get em out. I think you should put them up on your ceiling, really make it shine." She teased, "maybe put up some lights or something. This place is so boring. The only thing you really have going on in here is your cork board."

"Well I have the stars, but I haven't got any lights." I told her as I rolled off of my bed, heading to the closet, I rummaged around until I found the bag of stars, walked back out and tossed them at Jade.

"Then we're going to the store, come on." She tossed the bag away and swung her boot-clad feet off of my bed, pushing herself to her feet. We walked down to her car and drove all around trying to find lights. We ended up getting purple, blue, orange and white drip lights as well as some rope lights, then drove back to my house, turned on some music and decorated my room.

I actually had fun, and for the most part, Jade was acting normal. Or normal for how Jade used to act. We danced around, joked, and had an overall good time. The sun was down by the time we were done, and the pair of us lay back on my bed with my main lights off and the string lights on.

The purple, blue and white illuminated the room and flicked off the shiny gold stars hanging from the ceiling, "you should think about getting those quotes on your wall. The press on ones." Jade said randomly, "or see if your mom will let you paint it, or just put up some pictures. It doesn't look lived in."

"Which is odd since I'm pretty much always in here when I'm home." I responded, "what time do we need to go to your place?"

"Well, I told Tyler I'd bring home some dinner, so we should go now. I'll give him a call while you pack up." She told me, "I'll be down at my car." She jumped up in a flash and was out of my room in a flash.

"Strange behavior." I muttered to myself, picking up my duffle bag and jamming clothes into it in a rush.


	6. The West Residence

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Five: _The West Residence **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

Jade, true to her word, was waiting downstairs next to her white ford truck. She was just shoving the phone into her pocket when I pulled the door shut behind me, already having said my goodbyes to my mom and dad.

"Ready, Vega?" I nodded, walking over to the passenger door as she stepped up to the driver's door. We both hopped in, an awkward silence descending on the car. I chewed on my lip and tapped my fingers on my leg randomly, noticing how Jade's tapped in a pattern on the steering wheel at a red light.

Thumb, first finger, middle finger, ring finger, pinky, ring finger, middle finger, first finger thumb. Over and over, if she double tapped her middle finger she'd double tap on her ring pinky, and backwards, tapping only once on the middle on her way back, and then switched back to one tap.

As she drove I could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her other hand gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles were white. She was so worked up, her eyes glared out the window angrily.

I wanted to say something, I really did, but I just had no clue what to say or do to start a conversation. I let out a long sigh and slouched against the seat as we turned into a McDonalds parking lot, "what do you want?" Jade mumbled.

"Double Cheese burger, large fry and a sweet tea." I mumbled, leaning down and reaching for my bag.

"I'll pay." Jade told me, placing our order soon after. Once we had the food in the car and paid for Jade sped up, racing toward what I knew was the richer part of town. As we moved on further the houses got bigger and bigger.

Before I knew it we were in front of a large mansion, three rather expensive looking cars were parked in the driveway, and Jade rolled right up into the garage, "my dad hates when my truck sits out front. He doesn't want our neighbors seeing it." She mumbled.

"He sounds charming as ever." I muttered, slipping out of the car and following her into the house. The garage led into a utility room that opened to a large kitchen full of steel silver appliances and gray marble counters, with dark wooden cuppoards.

Jade quickly walked out of the large kitchen, through the cathedral like entry way and up a long staircase that looked like the staircase from What A Girl Wants. I followed her up the stairs, worried that my shoes would get the clean white carpet dirty. Mean while Jade's boots were leaving dirt prints as she stomped up the stairs.

"Tyler!" she hollered, heading to her left and moving swiftly down a hallway to a solid red door with a sign declaring 'Tyler's Room' taped on it. Jade knocked twice and then shoved the door open.

Tyler was on his floor playing with legos, when the door open his head snapped up and his unruly brown hair flew around his head, his large green eyes widened as a smile erupted across his face and he launched himself at his sister.

"Jade!" he yelped, talking a mile a minute as his sister put him down, "hi Tori!" he managed to say with a wave before continuing on as we sat down at a small red table to eat our food.

After about an hour Tyler crawled into his bed and Jade dragged me away from his room, back across the house to the right side of the staircase and to a door with dark purple paint on it, "what your step. It's dark." She mumbled, pushing the door open.

It was dark, but I could see she was leading me down a staircase. It was a long winding one, longer then the one we walked up to get here, so I assumed we were going down to the basement or something or other.

Finally I felt myself step off the staircase and heard Jade fumbling around on the other side of the room, and then it was bathed in multicolored lights, "my bedroom light must've burnt out. This is the best I can do." She explained.

"It's fine."

"The bathrooms through that door." She pointed next to the staircase, "and there's a mini-fridge and a water cooler back there. I'm going to shower." She walked through a third door on the other side of her bed, coming out a few minutes later with some clothes, and then she disappeared into her bathroom.

I set my bag down near the foot of her unmade bed. Her comforter was half on half off of her bed, her pillows were tossed about and her sheets were rolled into a ball in the center of her bed.

Her headboard seemed to be painted black, bits were chipped and I could see light brown wood beneath it. The mirror I remembered being there was painted over with purple. There was a small jewelry box, and old water bottle, and three really old glass coke bottles in a row.

She had wallpaper on her left wall beside a large chair with her laptop on it. There were two shelves stacked with strange things. Preserved fish, other strange things I didn't recognize, something that looked like a small pig, and some things I just didn't want to look at. Beside that hanging on her wall were pinned butterflies, all sorts of different ones. Below that was her desk, covered with books, makeup, a small mirror, CD's and her pearpod.

The wall beneath the staircase, which was also lined with string lights, had three bookcases covering it, filled with books, pictures, figurines and other random knickknacks. My eyes drag across the pictures.

The only picture Jade has from the past is the one Beck was talking about. I glanced at the door. The shower was still running, so I gently picked up the frame. Everything else on the shelf, I noticed, had dust on it. So did the frame, but there was a hand print on the left side, where I was in the picture. It was completely clean over my face, where the small thumb of the hand would have been.

In the picture Jade and I were laying on our stomachs on my bed, our legs kicked up and tangled together, behind us while we hung half off the bed. I had my arms wrapped around Jade so I wouldn't fall and she had her arms wrapped around my middle, the pair of us were laughing like crazy.

I remembered that day vividly.

We had been stuck in the house all afternoon watching movies with my mom and then we were upstairs hanging out in my room with my mom talking about how we were going to decorate and Jade and I almost flipped off the bed, mom picked up my camera in a flash and took a picture.

The picture was taking the same day Jade and I first kissed.

_August 31st. _

_Jade had kissed a boy 3 weeks before, Jeremy Stevens, and I flipped out. I wouldn't talk to her, until she finally chased after me, dragged me into a janitors closet and pinned me up against a wall, "what's your problem Tor?" _

"N-nothing." I managed to stutter. The only other thing I could hear was the roaring sound of my heart hammering in my chest. Jade was watching me closely, her eyes scanning across my face, meanwhile all I could managed to do was watch the way her lips moved as she spoke.

"_Tor, what's going on? Why won't you talk to me?" Jade demanded again, pushing hard on my shoulder, "is this about Jeremy? Do you like him too?" _

"_N-no." I replied, looking down at my shoes, but instead I found myself staring at the way her jeans clung to her long legs, hugging the curve of her hips so nicely._

"_Then what's your problem?" she screamed._

"_I like you!" I screamed back, my jaw dropped open and my heart skidded to a stop. Her eyes widened slightly and her mouth hung slightly open. I had no clue what she was thinking, and I had no clue what I was thinking. _

_And then she closed the distance between us, her body pressed close to mine, and then her lips pressed against mine. I was startled; I had no clue what to do. I couldn't process anything. _

_All my brain knew was that Jade's soft body was pressed against mine, her hand was on my hip and her soft, moist lips were pressed against mine. Slowly my eyes slid shut, Jade started to pull away, lingering inches from me, I moved and pressed my lips to hers, my arms winding around her neck._

"Vega?" I nearly jumped a mile when Jade called my name, from a few inches behind me. Her hand wrapped around my side and folded around the frame, her thumb landing over my face, brushing my thumb that was on her face. She was directly behind me, I could feel the heat from her rolling against my body.

She tugged the frame gently from my limp fingers and leaned forward, placing the frame back in its spot on the shelf, her front pressed against my back. "sorry…" I muttered uselessly.

"It's okay To-Vega." Jade quickly corrected, "I was just going to tell you that the showers all yours if you want it, but you were spaced out."

She didn't step back and her hot breath curled down my neck, I suddenly wished I'd left my hair down; the memory of Jade's teeth roughly biting my neck in the bathroom at school was still fresh in my mind. The hickey was still visible on my neck.

"Jade, I'm going to go change." I said suddenly, feeling an awkward twist in my stomach as I finally walked away from her, picking up my bag. Jade was standing there behind me, her hand raised near where my ponytail would have been. I could see her in the reflection of the mirror.

With a long sigh I closed the door, submerging myself in the steam filled bathroom, walking toward the toilet to sit, but instead my knees buckled and I fell to the floor, hot tears streaming down my face.

This just sucks. Being so close to Jade. Spending today with her felt like we were still in middle school, still best friends. Still us. There were so many times that I just wanted to turn around and kiss her, to shove her against the wall.

I knew that it would only end in her rejecting, hurting and or humiliating me and kill any chance of me being able to be any part of Jade's life again. I knew that it was logical to just stop thinking about Jade like this, it would be the right thing to do. But I just couldn't.

Jade was my first everything, my first best friend, my first kiss, my first love, my first betrayal, my first heart break. She was with me for my first roller coaster ride, she taught me to ice skate, sang with me during my first stage performance.

I just couldn't not love her.

I giant sob busted through my other wise silent lips and I bit my knee to keep from screaming in annoyance. I was so focused on choking back my tears that I didn't hear the door open, "Vega, what the hell are you doing?"

"I stubbed my toe." I answered instantly picking my head up to look at Jade. My eyes slowly traveled up her long pale legs, past the short shorts, over her the two inches of her flat stomach, up past the swell of her breasts and finally met her gaze.

"You're such a fucking liar." Jade replied, "hurry up and get dressed, I've got a movie on." She spun on her heel and marched back out of the bathroom, pulling the door shut forcefully behind her.

I was thankful all she did was call me out on lying. She'd kill me if she knew why I was upset. I wish I could be as detached about this as she could, she hardly even twitched when she saw me that first day, while I mentally shut down.

"Vega!" Jade screamed.

"I'm getting dressed, West!" I screamed back, getting to my feet I grabbed my bag, pulled out the pajama's I'd shoved into it and switched the clothes I was wearing. I pulled my hair out of the ponytail it was in and ran my fingers through it.

I scooped up my bag, pulled open the door and flicked the light off before stepping into Jade's room, "took you long enough. Pull that chair over." She gestured to the chair her laptop was in. I tossed my bag at the foot of her bed and slowly started dragging the heavy chair over to her bed.

"Gimme my laptop." She demanded, I did as she asked, she took it from me and set it on the other side of her bed, rolling back over and pushing my stomach so I flopped back into the chair, "we're watching Burlesque."

"Fine." I mumbled absently, happy for anything to pull my mind away from Jade. I pulled my legs up and curled up in the chair, watching as her whole wall turned blue. Her TV was a huge projector.

Slowly the screen came to life and I found myself absently watching Christina Aguilera move around on the screen. I wasn't really pay attention until she walked into the club, I'd seen the movie before, and this was always one of my favorite parts.

"Hunny, I should wash your mouth out with jagermeister. The only pole you'll find in here is Natasha the shot girl." The doorman, Jade, and I recited together. My eyes flicked to Jade after I said it, but she was watching the screen, waiting for Cher's appearance.

By the middle of the movie the pair of us were singing along and dancing together. Obviously the things that didn't change about us were our similar tastes in movies. After the movie ended Jade rolled out of her bed.

"I'm going to go check on Tyler I'll be right back." She told me, before she started up the stairs, "find us a movie to watch!" and then she was gone. I looked around until I spotted the DVD's. I rolled out of her bed and flipped through them until I found Step Up 3.

I found her DVD player and changed the DVD's out, I was flopping back down on her bed when she finally waltzed downstairs, a box of Famous Amos cookie's in her hand and a suggestive smirk on her face, "want a cookie?"

"I think I do." I replied, dropping down and bouncing off of her bed, meeting her at the foot of her steps, I stuck my hand in the box and popped a cookie into my mouth, spinning around and dropping into her chair as the movie started, "come on West. More dance movies! Let's go!"

The movie started and I watched it with rapt attention, "I wish I could do that dance." I mumbled, mostly to myself watching Luke and Natalie dancing at the party. Jade raised an eyebrow at me and then rolled off her bed, "what are you doing?"

"Teaching you the dance." She replied, holding out her hand, I took it and she jerked me up out of the chair, "follow my instructions." She demanded, I obeyed and she taught me the whole dance. Of course, that wasn't helping my feelings toward Jade decrease any, but I didn't care.

"Alright Vega, time for bed." Jade finally told me, stepping up on her bed to turn of the projector and DVD player. I was watching the way she moved, slinking around like a cat as she moved. And then she miss stepped, and tumbled off the edge of her bed.

I reached out and grabbed her around the waist, she fell back against me and we tumbled into the armchair, Jade fully in my lap, her head on my shoulder, "thanks." She whispered.

"Anytime." I replied, smirking at her. We stayed like that for a little bit longer before Jade finally got out of her chair and pulled me up with her, "what.."

"I'm not going to make you sleep in a chair." She replied, "I think we're mature enough to share abed for a few hours." She grabbed a pillow and tossed it to me before crawling into her bed. I sighed and crawled in behind her, curling up around the pillow she'd tossed at me.

I woke up early once again, this time to a noise I couldn't even begin to figure out. After a few more minutes of listening to the strange noise I got up, pulled on the pajama shorts I'd kicked off last night and then walked upstairs, checking my text messages.

As I opened Jade's door I heard another door open and almost walked right into a woman who I assumed was Jade's stepmother, "great, she's home and she brought one of those trouble making girls with her." The woman said as soon as she spotted me.

She was an angry looking woman with pin-straight blonde hair with a blunt cut that stopped just under her chin. Her eyes were icy blue and her gaze was something that might've made my skin crawl if I hadn't had this treatment before.

"Hey Tori!" a young voice called from downstairs, I peered over the banister, Tyler was grinning up at me, "can you come help me with breakfast?"

"Sure thing kiddo!" I called, brushing past the woman and walking quickly down the steps as fast as I could. He led me into the kitchen and told me he wanted to make eggs and bacon, but he couldn't reach everything.

I helped him get the things he'd need down and supervised his cooking, "David! You're trouble making little brat brought another girl home! You need to do something about her!" I heard the woman complaining. Her voice was getting closer, so she must've been coming toward the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes, was Jade really that bad?

Jade's father stepped into the kitchen a few seconds later. He was in a dark blue suit with a white button up shirt underneath and a plain black tie. His light hair was brushed back perfectly and he looked grumpy.

His eyes flicked over me and then a frown made it's onto his face, "Tyler, did you cook this?" he shrunk away.

"Sorry, I didn't know any better. I was really hungry when I woke up." I told her father; Tyler glanced up at me with a small smile on his face. Mister West gave me a look, glanced at Tyler and then sighed, walking out of the house with a brief case.

The new Miss West was still glaring at Tyler and me, her arms crossed over her flat chest, her ugly manicured nails digging into her arm. She reminded me a lot of Camille, Jade's first stepmother.

"That looks never going to work on anybody. You look like you just crapped your pants." I told her, spinning on my heel to watch Tyler fixing his eggs. The woman growled in annoyance.

"Your father doesn't like you cooking." The woman stormed around the counter toward Tyler, I stepped between them and took the spatula helping Tyler cook. I decided I really didn't like his new stepmother, and I actually was hungry.

She let with a huff, stamping her feet the whole way. "How old is she, five?" I muttered to myself. Tyler chuckled beside me as I scooped the eggs out onto three plates beside some bacon.

"Can we go eat down in Jade's room?" Tyler asked hopefully.

"Do you think she'd mind?" he shrugs and picks up two plates, heading straight for the stairs. I follow him with the third plate, silently pulling open the door to her room for him as he hopped down the stairs.

"Jade!" he called about half way down the steps.

"What?" she called back.

"Breakfast!" he replied, I watched him hit the last step and hand her a plate; dropping into the chair I'd been in last night. Jade was sitting on her bed beside the chair, so I sat on the other side of her bed while Tyler flipped on the TV to watch Adventure Time.

Half-way through breakfast Sikowitz did his check in and reminded us we needed to be dressed as each other the next day. Jade scowled at the phone as she hung up while Tyler and I were unable to keep in our laughter.

"Tori, you're going to pick Jade's outfit and Jade, you'll pick Tori's and such. The best pair gets extra credit." Jade's scowl depended and my mind instantly started to piece together Jade's outfit, laugh still tumbling out of me as I clutched my stomach trying to calm down.

"Don't kill each other. Bye!" Sikowitz said before hanging up. With a scowl Jade gave me a hard shove off of the edge of her bed. I slammed to the floor dead center on my tailbone. I bit back a swear word and pulled myself off the floor.

"Tyler!" I heard the stepmonster call upstairs. Tyler groaned, "great, she's dragging me to piano practice." He frowned as he stood up, hugging Jade and waving goodbye to me as he went upstairs.

"Time to figure out what you'll be wearing." I sighed and watched Jade get up off of her bed, "we're going to meet everyone at the mall to buy our outfits for the day, hurry up and get dressed." Then she disappeared into her closet.

I picked up my bag and locked myself in her bathroom, taking care of my business, changing, washing my face and pulling my hair back a little bit away from my face for lack of anything better to do with it.

When I stepped out Jade was shoving her foot into her boot, phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, she hadn't heard me open the door, "I know that, but you said until I was ready. I'm not ready." Jade was saying, she sounded terrified. Not wanting her to claim I was eaves dropping, I pulled the door shut behind me loudly, pretending to be busy looking in my bag for something.

"Ready to go?"

"Yep." I replied, swaying back and forth on my feet. She picked up her shoulder bag, dug around for her keys and pushed me up the stairs, down the hallway, down the other stairs, through the kitchen and out the garage, only stopping to lock the front door.

"Get in!" she growled, slamming the door open from inside the car. I winced when the door slammed into my kneecap, my eyes narrowing at her in anger as I hopped into the passenger seat, pulling my door shut as Jade sped backwards out of the garage.

"Good god Jade!" I squeaked when she spun the tires at the end of the driveway. For some reason she was right back to being the bitchy, rude, sarcastic Jade in a split second, tossing insults at me every time I started to say something.

Jade pulled up and parked two spaces down from Beck's truck where everyone was gathered, as soon as the car stopped I threw myself out and slammed her door shut as hard as I could, stalking across the space between me and everyone else, putting a big distance between Jade and I, hurt and anger swimming in my stomach.

"Tori?" Cat called, "are you okay?" I glanced Cat's way and gave her a short nod. Cat stepped over and gave me a short hug before backing away. Andre comes to stand beside me to tell me about Robbie's strangeness while Robbie was arguing with Rex for flirting with Cat(something she didn't like) and Beck was talking to Jade.

"So how was your weekend with Beck?" I asked Cat, she perked up and then bounced over next to me, babbling rapidly about her weekend with Beck and seeing some fish tank. Robbie and Rex both complained that she was standing beside me.

"Cat!" Beck suddenly called, she leaned forward to peer around me, I turned my head toward Beck as well, Jade was glaring angrily in our direction while Beck had his phone pressed to his ear. Cat gripped my hand and dragged me with her across the lot.

She took Beck's phone and pressed it to her ear, "Hi Sikowitz!" she chirped into the phone, cocking her head to the side at his reply, "yeah, but why not? So? I wear dresses all the time!" a pout pulled across her face, "fine. Sikowitz says I can't pick out a dress, or heels, for Beck."

She handed Beck his phone and frowned, Jade snorted and made a strange sound like a growl in the back of her throat, which was when I realized Cat still had my hand, and Jade was glaring at our intertwined fingers.

"Come on, let's get shopping quick. I have a feeling this is going to take a long time." Beck says, putting his arm around Jade's shoulder, Cat shrugs and spins, running toward the group, pulling me off with her.

"Cat, are you going to let go of my hand?" I asked, she glanced down at our hands and made a weird noise, gripping mine tighter, "Cat…"

"Shh, I have a plan. Just help me with it, please." She said vaguely. I had no clue what she meant, but with her vice like grip I wasn't getting my hand back anytime soon. We went into at least 6 stores before Cat released my hand to go try on her 'Beck' outfit.

The second she was back in her bright pink top and matching pink plaid skirt she twined her fingers through mine, I didn't really care by that point though, because Cat bounced ahead of the group and Jade and her grumpy attitude were at the back of the group.

After finding everyone's outfits for tomorrow we ate lunch and then split up, landing me back at Jade's mansion with the grumpy wench or Wenchotamia. We sat in dead silence until around 11:30 when I giggle at a text message from Andre.

"Would you quit being so fucking loud Vega?" Jade hissed, "your girlfriend cant be that funny."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I growled.

"You know what I'm talking about Vega." She snapped.

"No, _West,_ I don't. I don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about!" I hollered back, getting to my feet, "so why don't you enlighten me?"

"You and your new girl friend, Cat. You've been all over each other all day. It's disgusting!" Jade yelled, tossing her phone across the room, I wasn't sure why or what purpose it served, but then she screamed in frustration.

"Like you and Beck aren't always all over each other everyday? Do I complain about it? What business of yours is it whose hand I'm holding or whose texts I'm laughing at!" I grab my bags off of the ground, push my phone in my pocket and narrow my eyes at her before spinning and running up the stairs. As I ran out I bumped into Mister West and tumbled to the ground.

"Damn it." I hissed under my breath, "I'm sorry Dave. Er I mean Mister West." I quickly amended, stuffing the few items that had tumbled out of my bag back into them.

"Tori?" he asked as I straightened, "I thought I recognized you this morning, are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine. I need to get home." I replied.

"Is your car outside?" he asks.

"No. I'm going to walk." And then I spin and throw myself down the stairs as fast as I can, bursting out the front door and into the middle of a huge thunderstorm. As the thunder claps through the air a scream rips from my throat, I start running toward my house, rain pouring down on my head. Anything to put me far away from Jade.

I didn't even begin to realize how long my run through the rain would last and it was nearly 12:40 by the time I got to my front door. I was soaked to the bone, tears were mingling with the rain drops on my face and I couldn't tell if my body was shaking from the cold or my crying, but I didn't care at that point because I was still mad.

Whether it was anger toward Cat or Jade I couldn't figure out, but when Trina came downstairs and bitched at me for coming home late and disrupting her beauty sleep I couldn't help but slap her across the face.


	7. Black Eye

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Six: _ Black Eye**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

"Come on Jae!" I begged, holding my hand out to her, she glared up at me, "Jae, come on!" I snatched up her hand and dragged her with me, lacing my fingers through hers as I tugged her over to the group of fellow 3rd graders.

_They all looked over at us (mostly Jade) and frowned a little, "What are we talking about?" I asked, they start talking to me and ignore Jade so I walked away from them, tugging Jade behind me and dropping down on a bench far away from me, "can I see your drawings from today?"_

"_No." she snapped instantly, but after a few minutes she handed me the sketchpad. I carefully flipped through the pages, leaning against Jade with a grin on my face as she told me about each of her drawings._

_And then suddenly we were sprawled across her bed, wrestling over the same worn out sketch pad, now filled with loose leafs of paper, a cracked spine and many more of her beautiful drawings._

_Only now, four years later, she was embarrassed to let me see it. I hooked my leg around her hip and wound it between her legs, flipping us over and pinning her down on the mattress, snatching the book from her pale fingers._

_I flipped it open to the back, where her newer drawings were and almost gasped out loud in shock. All I was seeing was my face, me sitting watching TV, me lying asleep beside her, me looking over at something, me reading my book, laughing. "Jade…"_

"_Look I know they're horrible, I'm sorry." She grumbled, turning her head away from me. I chuckled, closing the book and setting it on the floor, my fingers grasping her chin and turning her face toward me, "what?"_

"_They're gorgeous." I whispered, pressing my lips against hers, she wrapped her arm around my back and pulled me closer rolling over so we were lying next to each other. She tangled her legs with mine and kissed me again._

"Jade…"

My eyes snapped open and I jerked upright as the dryers buzzer went off, I pulled my clothes out of the dryer and then hauled them upstairs with me. It was nearly 3 am now, and thanks to Trina and her big screaming mouth I was lectured for an hour before I could wash my clothes.

I slumped down in my desk chair and pulled out my homework, getting to work on it, praying I might get at least an hour of sleep today. The math problems taunt me, dancing around on the page with 'x's and 'y's.

I scribbled nonsense down on the paper, unsure if I was even close to doing the right thing on the problems, then moved onto my English work, and thought about all the Chemistry work I'd need to do.

"Tor!" Jade squealed, tumbling off of the bed, pulling me with her. We hit the floor with a thunk as I continued to tickle her relentlessly. She was squeaking and screaming with squeals, kicking and wriggling trying to escape my fingers.

_A particularly good hip flip had me falling to the ground beside her and her fingers were attacking my sides as I burst into peels of laughter, tears building at the corners of my eyes, "Jade! Jade! I give up!" I was wheezing and trying to get her away from me but nothing was working, "Jade! Stop!"_

_And just like that she stopped, her hands hovering over my hips a grin on her face while I heaved in gulps of oxygen. As soon as I'd stopped panting she leaned down and kissed me hard, pulling me up so I was sitting, something was lodged under my hand and suddenly Friends was blaring behind us._

"Tori!" I jerked upright in my seat, almost tipping over in the chair. It was not even 5am yet, "Tori!"

"What?" I screamed, snapping my head toward the door. Trina backed away as quick as she could, rushing down the hallway. I frowned and looked at my homework. I had two problems left on my Chem homework so I hastily scribbled down answers and packed my homework away.

I quickly went into the bathroom and took a freezing cold shower, stepped out, dried off and moved into my bedroom. My phone was buzzing on my bed and Cat's bubbly face flashed across the screen, "what?" I snapped into the phone.

"I was just wondering if you had any boots. I forgot to get some to wear." She replied in a small voice, I'd clearly upset her. Guilt bit away at me, "I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault Cat, I think I have some boots you can wear." I mumbled, "I'll bring them to school for you."

"Thanks Tor!" she squeaked, babbling on about something her brother did while I mindlessly did my makeup, fixed my hair and pulled on my 'Jade' outfit. It was the last thing I wanted to do today, the last thing I'd want to be wearing, but I'd been given no choice unless I wanted an F.

My 'Jade' outfit consisted of a pair of boots, some ripped up black tights, a black skirt and a black tank top with a black jacket and a dark bag that looked like the one she carried. My hair was curled and I put in fake colored extensions.

By the time I was done it was 5 and Cat was still babbling away in my ear, "Cat, you wanna meet me at the coffee shop down the street from school so I can give you the boots? I'll buy breakfast."

"Sure!" she squeaked happily. I hung up with her, put all of my things in the bag, grabbed the makeup I used in case of touch up and grabbed the fake eye studs I'd found at the mall yesterday, as well as the boots.

"Mom?" I called as I reached the bottom steps and nearly kicked the piano bench, "can I take your car today since you're staying home?"

"Sure Tori." She spun around to say something else and gasped in shock, grabbing her chest, "Oh goodness, I forgot about your assignment." She shook her head and turned back around, whatever she wanted to say forgotten. I picked up her keys.

"Bye mom." I muttered, spinning on my heel and heading out to our blue Ford Focus. I tossed my bag into the passenger seat, the boots into the back, started the car and backed out of the driveway, flipping on the headlights once I finally remembered.

I sped most of the way to the coffee shop and pulled into the last available spot, spotting Cat's bright hair disappearing through the front door. I shoved the door open, shut the car off and picked up my bag, slipping out of the car and into the coffee shop.

"Tor!" she calls, rushing over to me. I brace myself for the crushing impact of the hug. Her arms wrap around my neck and she slams against me, I stumble back a few feet and manage to put one arm around her to return the hug.

"Can I take your order?" the pimply twenty something guy behind the counter asked.

"Two glazed doughnuts, a French vanilla coffee, three sugars, large." I answer.

"Hot chocolate for me, and a plain doughnut." Cat says with a thousand watt smile in his direction. He gave her this weird look and then punched the buttons on the register, preparing our drinks.

I looked Cat over. She was in a black and yellow checkered shirt with a gray ribbed tank under it, a pair of loose, low slung jeans, and heels with a backpack slung over her shoulder.

"The boots are in the car, did you walk here?" I asked her.

"No, my mom dropped me off. I was hoping you could give me a ride to school…"

I shrugged, taking my bag of doughnuts and coffee from the guy, handing him a twenty and three singles as Cat took her hot chocolate, "come on." I hooked my arm through hers and pulled her out of the small shop, just as Jade and Beck came swooping through the door.

Jade slammed hard against Cat's shoulder, hard enough that she almost spilled her hot chocolate and doughnuts. Cat made a sad sound in the back of her throat at her supposedly best friends, behavior.

"She just had a bad night." I mumble, thinking about the rain soaked run home I had. I shook my head and took a large gulp of my coffee, hitting the unlock button on my keys so the locks popped open.

I set my coffee cup into the cup holder, grabbed a doughnut out of the bag and handed it to Cat, taking a large bite out of mine. Cat was silent for a few minutes before whispering something I pretended not to hear.

"You and Jade are a lot alike."

Instead of responding, I start the car and pull out of the space, slowly driving toward school, pulling into a spot I know is normally empty. Cat and I finish our doughnuts, and she switches shoes, I put the fake stud on and Cat points out I should draw on Jade's tattoo, so she draws it for me.

"Thanks Cat." I tell her after she caps the sharpie she used. She shrugs and picks up her hot chocolate while I pick up my coffee and follow her to the asphalt café, to our usual table and slump down.

Andre and Robbie are already sitting at the table. Andre is in a dark red turtleneck and girl pants with converse. Robbie is in a hoodie, a large t-shirt and a pair of looser fitting pants with colorful shoes on his feet.

Not long after, Beck dropped down on the bench next to me and Jade sat between him and Robbie. Beck was dressed in a bright pink v-neck and tight fitting jeans with bright yellow converse. He must've changed from when he was at the coffee shop.

Jade was in the yellow tank top with the ruffled top and flowing bottom and the white jeans with a pair of yellow high heels. Her hair was pulled away from her face and her makeup was lighter, her eyebrow ring was out and she'd covered her tattoo up.

"Damn, Jade really _is _a girl." I choked on my coffee and Cat's eye bugged out of her head as Jade growled, turned to Rex, and for the third time since I'd switched to this school, she ripped his arm off and threw it across the café.

Robbie almost yelled at Jade, but then he changed his mind, shimmied out of his spot, grabbed Rex's arm and ran inside the school. Andre mumbled something about getting to class to get a spot in the back and I just didn't feel like being stuck with Jade, so I left with Andre.

"You did really good on your Jade look." Andre commented, "How was the rest of your day? You didn't text me."

"It fucking sucked." I sighed, pulling open my locker.

"What could have happened in a few hours?" Andre asked.

"Jade picked a fight with me for some reason and when I left there was a huge storm and I had to run home." I sighed.

"Jade, you made her walk home? _In the rain?_" I hadn't even heard Beck and Jade walk over to Beck's locker. I let my head drop against the locker, not ready to hear Jade's answer.

"Yeah? So what? She should have just called her new best friend, Cat." Jade hissed.

"Cat was at my house, why would you do that?" Beck demanded.

"She's still alive, damn." She growled and stomped off.

"Don't break a heel, Jade." I called after her in anger, my voice coming out just as taunting as I wanted it to. None of the anger and frustration leaked through my voice and she made an angry scream in the back of her throat and sped up.

Satisfied that I'd pissed her off, I slammed my locker door shut and headed toward my first period, already working toward my Jade act for the rest of the day. I was fine all day, and then it came time for Sikowitz's class.

I stormed in, in perfect Jade fashion, and then slumped into my chair next to Cat who was already sitting in Beck's habitual chair. Beck bounced into the door chatting happily and sat down in front of us, turning around and bubbling toward us.

"Shut _up._" I hissed, not because it was annoying me, but because I was being Jade. He fell silent and mimicked Cat's sad face perfectly. I wanted to tell him so, but instead I just slumped down in my seat and pulled out my phone.

Andre came in, Rex now in his lap, and sat down where Robbie always sat. Jade and Robbie walked in a few minutes later, deep in fake conversation before they sat down side-by-side and Jade flipped her hair, giggling.

The whole class was silent when Jade giggled, and she didn't let her act falter as she gently smacked Robbie's arm, "you are so annoying." I snapped, adjusting my place in my chair to face the back of Beck's head while Cat slung her arm around the back of my chair.

"Well good morning students." Jade instantly perked up and responded to Sikowitz's greeting, as did Beck, while Cat and I remained quiet. He continued on babbling, doing things he knows would set off certain students, and smiled when the ones he was trying to set off spoke.

"Alright, now we have to vote on best impersonation. Look around the room, then write down the pair on a piece of paper, put it in this hat." He snatched a hat off of Sinjin's head and then tossed it to Jade.

She scribbled down her answer, snatched Robbie's and threw it gently to Beck, friendly smile still planted on her face. "While I find the winner you can go change." I sighed in relief; I could wash all this darn makeup off of my face.

Every guy in the class paired with a girl darted out of the classroom, Jade groaned in misery, "what's the matter? Don't have backup clothes?" I tease, pulling out my makeup remover. I quickly scrubbed the makeup off of my face and applied my normal makeup, also removing the stud and part of the tattoo.

Without asking Jade snatched my makeup removing wipes and cleaned up her face, pulling her makeup out of her bag to touch up whatever she'd decided she messed up. I leaned over and snatched the bag back, quickly putting my back to her and setting my bag in my lap.

By the time Sikowitz totaled up the vote the guys that had left were back and re-dressed, "The winners were Jade and Tori, so you two get extra credit. Good job, everyone else, I'll post your grades tonight."

The bell rang and we all moved out to the Grub Truck, got our food and went to our habitual table. Jade took her normal seat between Beck and I, brushing me when she sat down. This time I moved over, closer to Andre.

Cat and Beck kept shooting glances at each other, at Jade and I and then Beck would just shake his head. What are they up to? I catch Cat's eye when she decides to do this again, I raise my eyebrow in question and she squeaks and turns back to her tea.

The rest of my day was a blur, and as soon as I reached my house I ran upstairs, stripped out of the clothes I was in and burrowed under the sheets in just my underclothes. I wasn't in the mood for anybody so after about 10 minutes I got up and flipped the lock on my door before burrowing back under my sheets.

Dad came by a few times, checking if I'm okay, and then he walked away leaving me alone once more. I mostly slept, sometimes I'd just lay there, but most of the time I tried to ward off the dreams of Jade still lingering in my mind.

Of course the stars and lights weren't helping, they just made me remember the good parts of the weekend I wanted to pretend never happened. Jade was just driving me nuts. Why was she being so bitchy? School was going to suck if this is how we kept going.

I was late to Sikowitz' class Tuesday, and when I stumbled in Beck was getting his butt kicked by some guy, I almost ran to help him, if I wasn't in such a bad mood. The guy flipped him onto the table that broke away under him.

"Are you okay?" I gasped, all eyes turned to me.

The guy fighting with Beck helped him up and Beck pushed his fingers through his hair with a smile, "stage fighting Tori." Beck said, I blinked, "Fake fighting, I'm okay Tori."

"Well it looked like he was hurting you." I offer up, slipping down into a seat beside Andre.

"Why do you care?" Jade all but hissed. I couldn't stop myself from saying the words that tumbled out of my mouth next.

"Because I figured he already suffers enough pain dating you." I returned evenly, crossing my arms over my chest and slipping down further in the chair. Sikowitz went on to babble about something I wasn't listening to until he said 'partner'. I already knew who I would be partnered with, just because that always happened.

"Tori and Jade." They were the last two names out of his mouth and I decided I didn't want to stand by and deal with this.

"Sikowitz!" I jumped up as soon as the bell rang, but bumped into Beck and Jade. Beck grabbed my arm because I almost fell over. "thanks Beck." I muttered, catching my balance as he let go.

"No problem." I started walking away but Jade started talking and called for my attention.

"I can't wait for our fight.." she pauses and starts to turn away, then turns back, "scene." Then she snakes her arm around Beck's and pulls him out of the room as I moved closer to Sikowitz.

"Can I have a partner switch?" I asked, my voice edging on begging.

"What for?" Sikowitz asked.

"Because Jade might kill me?" I shrieked. Sikowitz just laughed and shook his head, like I was the funniest person on the planet. As he laughed he walked away from me and out the door.

"Don't worry Tori, Jade wont hurt you. It's points off."

"Great, so she gets an A- and I get a broken eye and a black nose!" I yelled flustered. Andre almost corrected me but I narrowed my eyes at him and he shut up, pulling my arm and leading me out to the asphalt café.

Jade told me what our fight scene was going to be and we practiced the next two days. Even though she never hit me during practice I didn't trust her not to hit me now. She was a robber and I was supposed to 'hit' her with my cane and she would get 'hit' and then rush me.

My hand shook on the cane and we started our scene. With panic in my voice I screamed our safety word as soon as Sikowitz yelled action, "What?" Jade screamed in frustration. I narrowed my eyes and then we started the scene, and just like I was supposed to I swung my cane around.

There was no sudden stop and ricochet, I swung right through, but Jade fell to the ground and cupped her eye. When she pulled her hand back she had a cut right under her right eye. I dropped the cane and stepped back panicked.

People rushed to help her while I stared wide-eyed, "I didn't…I didn't…" I stuttered. Backing up and hitting the table, the break away table. I fell to the ground and just sat there, "I didn't hit her." I managed to whisper.

People shot me shocked, angry, accusatory glances and I just sat there on the broken pieces of the break away table, staring at Jade's bleeding face with complete horror. And then I bolted from the room as fast as I could, my wig flipping off of my head as I moved out the door.

I stayed in the bathroom until the bell rang for class after lunch and I went to class. On Thursday, Jade came to school with a black eye and guilt ate at my stomach every time I saw her. Thankfully for me, Jade didn't sit with us at lunch.

She sat a few tables away, kids behind her were goofing off and before anyone at our table could warn the poor girl, she turned around a threw her glass of water in Jade's face, meaning for it to hit someone who had run away.

Jade jumped up from the table, the girl looked frightened, but something made Jade run away as fast as she could. I sighed and picked at my salad. When Beck noticed Jade's absence and sat down next to me, "where's Jade?"

"Some girl threw water in her face." Cat said in a chipper voice. Beck grunted and took a large gulp of the coffee I could smell was for Jade. He grimaced at the sweet taste, "she ran inside."

"She'll get her coffee in class then." Beck sighed, "I don't want to get screamed at right now."

Cat shrugged and I just let my head fall onto my hands on the table. It was just Beck, Cat and me at the table since Robbie was too scared to even come outside after Jade threatened Rex.

"Is she okay? Does her eye hurt a lot?" I asked, peeking over at Beck.

"I don't know…it doesn't seem to hurt too much. She usually just forgets about it." Beck shrugs. I fall silent and soon the only sound is Cat humming Forever Baby under her breath.

And then Andre bursts out the door, "Jade faked it!" he hissed in my ear when he reached the table, "the eye, it was makeup." My eyes widened and relief filled me. _I didn't hurt Jade. I didn't hurt her! _Quickly followed by _she faked a black eye and I have to clean the Black Box after a food fight._

After a few minutes of everyone staring at me, I shrug, "Okay." They all stare at me, but I don't say anything else. Instead I finish my chicken salad and drink my orange soda before the bell rings for us to go to class.

Andre and I walked to class together, but he didn't ask what I meant and I didn't explain it to him. We talked about the math assignment, worked on our problems during class, and then went to our next classes.

After my last class of the day I bounded over to Lane and Derrick, the security guy. They told me what time to be there and about how long I'd be stuck cleaning and then I got into my moms car and drove home to change out of my school clothes, and then drove back to catch the end of the play.

After everyone had cleared out I stacked up the chairs, pushed them to the side and started cleaning the tables covered in food after the massive food fight. It was just Derrick and I, and he was texting away while I silently cleaned up the food.

I'd finished all the tables after about an hour and then started on the walls, Derrick came over and asked me what I thought the food might be. He thought it might mac and cheese. I agreed annoyed and continued to scrape at the gunk.

"Why are you doing this?" Jade must've been standing right behind me. I nearly jumped when I heard her, but thankfully I had one hand braced on the wall while I scraped at the food stuck there.

"It's my punishment." I deadpanned, flicking the mac and cheese into a bucket. I turned to look at her. She was staring down at me while her eyes flicked around the wall, back and fourth.

"I know Andre told you." She stated bluntly.

"Told me what." I challenged.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked again.

"We've covered this, it's my punishment for hitting you." I told her.

"But you know you didn't!" she screamed, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

I stood up, dropping my scraper and towel to the ground. I put my hands on my hips and stared at her, "Because if were fighting all the time school is going to suck for both of us and our friends so why not try being nice." I stomped past her to the other side of the Black Box, but she followed me.

When I turned around she had a scraper in her hand, I didn't say anything to her as I continued to scrape gunk off of the wall. After a few minutes she walked over and turned the music on so we could dance and clean, and somehow she roped Derrick into helping and as he cleaned we slowly danced out of the Black Box.

"Need a ride home?" she asked once we were outside.

"If you don't mind, yeah." I told her, she pointed in the general direction of her truck and we started walking toward it, silent as can be. I hopped into the passenger's side, and she got into the drivers seat, driving toward my house.

"Thanks for the ride." I mutter when she stops in my driveway. I hop out of the car and run for the door, as I'm unlocking the door she pulls out. And then her truck stops at the end of my driveway and my phone vibrates, "Yes?"

"I'm sorry, Vega." And then she hangs up and pulls away. I unlock the door and push it open, my mom and dad are gone. All the lights are out. Trina's at a friend's house. I have the house to myself the rest of the night. I usually do on Friday's.

I trudge upstairs, drop my bag on the floor in my bedroom, shuffle into the bathroom, kick the door shut, and carefully peel off my clothes, piling them up next to Trina's hamper.

I turn on the water, brushing out my hair while it warmed, then I jumped into the shower and washed the grime away from my body. Once I was done I stumbled back into my room and flopped down on my bed.

I needed to find something to do.

- **I want to do a Jade POV chapter, maybe the next or the one after of what's going through Jade's head. Anybody think that's a good idea? Or should I just not?**


	8. Finding the Perfect Present

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Seven: _Finding The Perfect Present **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**New Laptop, more updates! Enjoy! :D**

There was a knock on my front door about twenty minutes after I got dressed. I skipped down the stairs and pulled open my front door, "Hey Andre! Cat, Robbie, didn't know you guys were coming. Come on in!" I pulled the front door open and stepped back.

"Beck called me." Andre told me, "Asked if he could come over, with Jade, they're bored."

"Sure." I shrug, sitting down on the couch as Cat babbled on about something and Robbie told us about Rex's date with the Northridge girls. Rex was thankfully absent during this little gathering. I don't think I could handle the 'puppets' rude behavior tonight, Jade's was going to be bad enough.

Robbie seemed to be pretty okay without the puppet to speak for him. "Oh! iCarly is on soon, can we watch it?" I nod and go upstairs to get my laptop. When I came back downstairs Andre was letting Beck in, Jade shuffled behind him silently.

I handed Cat the laptop and she turned it on while I sunk down on the couch beside her, between her and Andre. Andre was telling me all about some girl he liked while Cat babbled on about the iCarly webisode she was watching.

Beck and Jade were talking to Robbie and after the iCarly webisode everyone decided to watch a movie, "I'll go make popcorn!" I bounced up off of the couch and started toward the kitchen.

"I'll help." Beck offered, following behind me.

"There's some bowls up there." I pointed at some cabinets while I crouched down to grab the box of popcorn from the cabinet beside the sink. I popped one bag into the microwave and watched Beck grab the bowls.

Once he got them, he set them beside me and leaned back on the counter. Everyone else was in a large group argument about what to watch. His eyes lingered on Jade. She was actually in the middle of the argument, smacking Robbie on the back of his head for agreeing with Cat.

"I didn't know Jade was faking it…I'm sorry." Beck told me in a whisper.

"I didn't think you did." I replied. I'd really never even considered the thought that Beck would know that Jade faked the black eye. He popped open the microwave when it dinged, he opened the bag and dumped the popcorn in a bowl while I put a new bag into the microwave. He carried it over to Andre and then sat down again.

Once the other bowl of popcorn was done I dumped it into a bowl, flicked off the light for the kitchen and walked back toward the living room. Everyone had rearranged. Robbie was sprawled out next to Cat who was leaning on Andre who was sitting on the end of that couch. The only open space was next to Jade.

I passed Beck the popcorn as I sat down beside Jade, almost on the edge of the couch as I kicked my feet up on the table. Someone hit play and the Saw opening flashed on the screen. I glanced at Jade who mouth 'not my idea' and then turned to the screen.

"Yay!" Cat squeaked. Of all the people who wanted to watch a scary movie, _Cat. _I sighed and settled into my seat, leaning over every once in a while to shove popcorn into my mouth. Jade never snapped at me, even though I had to lean over her to get to the bowl in Beck's lap.

After awhile she seemed to be asleep. I took the bowl from Beck's lap, because he seemed to be falling asleep, too. And I suppose shortly after, so did I. Only to be startled awake by an ear piercing shriek.

I jumped and somehow tumbled off of the couch, landing on top of someone and I heard Beck grunt in pain while the voice shrieked again. "Cat! Stop!" Jade screamed. Her voice vibrated through my head, and I realized I was lying on her stomach, on the floor.

Cat squeaked and ran upstairs while Andre was laughing and Robbie was hiding behind a pillow. I glanced up from where I was laying. Beck was on the couch, still asleep. And I was lying on top of Jade, just between the table and my couch.

"Vega, you might want to get up." She suggested. I pushed myself into a sitting position and dragged myself to my feet with help from the couch, "Let's go find Cat." She looked around at the boys who were in different phases of being zoned out and then pulled me upstairs.

Cat was sitting outside my bedroom door, shaking with fear. I kicked my door open, and motioned for her to go inside. She slumped into my computer chair while Jade brought my laptop back upstairs before sinking down onto the extra bed still pulled out from Saturday.

A few minutes later Cat was giggling again and I was about to fall asleep on my bed, "Tori, can I stay the night? Andre left me here and Beck's passed out on your couch, Jade's asleep over there." She points to my guest bed, at some point she'd gone downstairs to find this out, but I'd probably fallen asleep and not noticed.

"Sure Cat, there are some pajama pants on the shelf in my closet." I turn over in my bed and wrap myself around my pillow, and then I wonder, is the front door locked? Probably not. I stumble out of my bed and down the stairs, lock the door, and then stumbled back upstairs.

"Tori, I'm sorry! I didn't mean too…" Cat was sitting on my bed her arms wrapped around her knees as she looked at the closet, "they just fell down, and Jade…" oh shit, the pictures!

I spun and walked right into my closet. Jade was kneeling on the floor; in front of her was the spilled box. Pictures were sprawled out across the floor she had one in her hands; she was staring at it intently.

"Jade."

Her head slowly pulled up from the pictures, "you still have these?" she asks.

"What'd you do to Cat?" I asked, she looked past me at Cat and shrugged, standing up and pulling the closet door shut behind me, pushing the button to lock it, "Jade…" I murmur, she's too close for my comfort.

"Why do you still have these?" she growls, waving the picture in her hand in my face. I grip her wrist and stop her waving. I glance at half of the picture; long enough to see that it was a picture from when we were dating.

"Why does it matter?" I snap, yanking the picture from her hand and quickly cleaning up the rest of them, shoving them haphazardly in the box and putting it in the back of my closet, I spun to yell at her again, and she was standing right behind me.

"It matters because I asked you."

"Because years of memories don't get thrown away the second there's a fight, so why should the pictures?" I replied, moving around her to open the door, "you might have gotten over it, but I haven't."

I twist the knob, the lock pops and I step back into my bedroom. Cat's still sitting on my bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, her face buried in her knees, "Cat, why don't you go change into the pajama's and then go to sleep."

"Okay." She whispers, slipping off the bed and darting across the hall.

"How much of the pictures did she see?" I asked, flipping back my sheets before I reached over and plugged the charger into my pearphone.

"She walked out and asked me why there was a picture of Tori kissing me in Tori's closet." Jade muttered. I closed my eyes and just stood there. Cat found out. Of all people, Cat, "She can keep a secret, but she'll want answers."

"And after the way she look she deserves them, Jade." I hiss, turning around, and then I'm stunned into silence. Jade's got her bottom lip between her teeth and everything about her posture, her squared shoulders flexing hands and straightened back tell me she's trying not to cry, "Jade…"

I step over to her, my fingers automatically brushing the hair away from her face like I always used to. Her face is soft and her hair feels like silk. She whimpers softly, she really didn't want anybody to know about us. She was scared.

"I'm sorry." It's all I can say, anything else might send her into tears and I can't handle that. I cup her cheek in my hand and tilt her head up until she's looking at me, "It's going to be okay Jade. It was the past, just a fling. It doesn't matter anymore, and once we explain that to Cat it'll all be behind us."

I don't believe the words, but she does. She nods and a few tears roll down her cheek. I brush them away with my thumb and put my free hand on her hip, pulling her closer to me, "don't cry." I whisper. But she leans against me, burying her face in the crook of my neck and hot tears hit my shoulder.

I put my arms around her, trying stupidly to comfort her and praying that Cat doesn't walk back in until Jade stops crying. She doesn't, and eventually Jade calms down, wipes her face and fixes her makeup, and we go find Cat, who's curled up on a couch downstairs.

"Cat, you gunna sleep down here?" Jade asked. She's staring at the TV terrified, like someone's going to jump out of it and stab her. Jade's face mirrors Cat's, but in a less obvious way.

"I guess…" she mutters against the pillow she wrapped around.

"Tori's got two beds upstairs, one of us can share. Come on." Jade urges, Cat sits up halfway and looks at Beck, who's asleep on the couch, "come on. Beck's not a pretty sight to see in the morning." And then she's tugging Cat up the stairs and I'm following them.

After a few minutes of silence while Jade is on one bed and I'm on the other, and Cat's on the computer chair, she speaks, "Can I ask about the pictures, or are you going to yell at me again?" the question is directed at Jade, but Cat's staring at me.

"I'm not going to yell at you again, I'm sorry Cat. I didn't mean it." Jade mutters, "I'm just tired."

"So, what was with the pictures?" A bit of her usual bubbly-ness seeps into her words.

"Jade and I were close friends from Kindergarten, we grew apart about three years ago and then we moved." I filled in. Cat looked over at Jade, "and we had a…"

"Fling." Jade filled in, "one of those pointless testing the water flings."

My heart cracked in a few more places then it already had and I sunk down lower on my bed, hoping Cat would believe her, "and you kept the pictures because…?" Cat asks.

"I haven't had the chance to go through and burn the ones I don't want." I lied, my voice coming out uncaring. Just the way it needed to. Cat's lips uncurled into a huge smile, she turned to Jade and started babbling about something while I sunk down into my sheets and curled up in my bed.

I must've fallen asleep, though, because the next time I woke up it was because the other side of my bed dipped down and I rolled backwards, "don't you dare try that cuddling crap, Vega." Jade's voice warned, she tugged on my blanket a bit and I slipped back into sleep.

"Oh just let them be." A female voice whispered. From the sound of it they were a few feet away, "it'll help."

"But-."

"Beck, lets just go find something to do while we wait for Tori to wake up." It was Cat and Beck, "Jade looks happy, just leave her to her sleep." They left a few minutes later, and then I realized what they were talking about.

Jade was snuggled up behind me, her arm wrapped around my waist pulling me flush against her. I had my head resting on her bent arm and her head was resting just behind mine, her breath trailing down my neck.

I rolled slightly, trying to get out of Jade's arms. I was really hungry. And she was just not letting me go. I sighed and turned onto my back to see how Jade's grip changed. She only pulled me closer.

"Jade." I hissed, poking her arm hard with my finger, "Jade!" one of her legs wrapped through mine and dragged me as close as was possible. She was still asleep next to me and I had no idea how to wake her up. Unless I rolled her off of the bed, but just how hungry was I?

"Well, I tried to wake you up." I muttered aloud, and then rolled over on top of her, she was still sound asleep. She wasn't moving. I rolled again and it was like she knew what I was going to do. She let me go and I rolled down onto the floor, "Bitch."

After I sat there for a few minutes I pushed to my feet and went downstairs where Cat and Beck were sitting, one on each couch watching Kenan and Kel. "Morning." I grumbled, making my way to the kitchen, "coffee?"

"Yes please." Beck said. Cat asked for hot tea. I quickly prepared the coffee maker and started it, heated up some water and stuck a tea bag in it when it was done before sitting down on the couch beside Beck. They were watching All That now; I stared absently at the screen.

Finally I registered that the coffee maker was no longer making, and hopped up, pulling out four cups. I made Jade's and mine automatically, stopped to ask Beck how he liked his, a splash of creamer and two sugars. I finished Cat's tea and took the pair their drinks while I drank my coffee.

Not even two minutes after I was done Jade trudged downstairs, walking straight to the kitchen to grab her cup and after taking a huge gulp she went and sat down on the other side of Beck.

"We should go get breakfast." Cat says happily, "and call Andre, and maybe Robbie."

Murmurs of agreement circle the room and we all slowly get up. Cat and I go change while Jade and Beck call Andre and Robbie and figure out where we're going to go eat. When we all meet outside Jade and Beck get into his car and I hop into my mom's car with Cat.

I follow after Beck all the way to the iHop a twenty minutes away from my house, and pull in between him and Andre's silver convertible. Andre and Robbie were already at a table waiting for us. Cat slipped beside Andre and Robbie, leaving me pinned against the wall beside Jade, across from Andre.

It was about halfway through breakfast when we figured out Jade and Beck were text fighting. At first it was just them looking at their phones angry, and then replying a few minutes later. And then Jade spun to face Beck and shouted at him in the middle of the restaurant. The fight ended after that.

We all spent the rest of the weekend hanging out around either my house or at a beach or park until 6 pm Sunday when we all split up to do homework and spend time with our families.

As soon as I stepped in the door I was assaulted by a piece of paper in my face announcing Trina's birthweek. I'd have to find her a gift. Or I'd never hear the end of it. Even worse, all week I had to be nice to her, especially since she never told mom about me slapping her.

"I hope you got something really good Tori!" Trina sing-songed. I closed my eyes and took the little paper, "Torriii."

"I've got homework to do." I told her, and then promptly ran upstairs to do the homework I'd mentioned. Of course I was done in a matter of minutes then I pulled out my laptop to create a list of possible gifts for Trina.

It was a short list.

Usually when Trina wanted something she just went out and bought it, and then she expected us to figure out what she wanted. And usually none of us got it right. I had no good idea, so I just saved the meager list and shut off my computer before dragging myself into bed.

The next day Trina woke me up early so we could sing her happy birthweek at breakfast, made me drive her to school and but her coffee, once we got to school though, she thankfully ran off with one of her friends.

I was early, so I walked over to my row of lockers and sat down in front of the one underneath mine, opening my laptop to add a hat and a bracelet that Trina had hinted at to my list, still scrambling to get more ideas so my parents and I could coordinate who was getting what.

"Hey Tor!" Cat called cheerfully, sitting down beside me while Andre sat on my other side. I stared impatiently at my screen; Andre passed me the cup of coffee that was sitting between us so he could set his bag between us.

"What are you doing?" Andre asked peering over my shoulder as two pairs of boots walked up to us.

"Trying to figure out a gift to get Trina for her birthweek."

"She's still on that birthweek shit?" Jade asked before snapping her jaw shut hard enough her teeth clicked together.

"How do you know about Trina's birthweek thing?" Andre raised an eyebrow at Jade who shrugged him off.

"She was in my math class last year, she was bragging about her birthweek every day the week before, during and after. I wanted to punch her face in." Jade explained, leaning against Beck more as she drank her coffee.

Andre stared at her for a long while before he nodded his head and turned back to me, "so what do you have on that list?"

"A bracelet and a hat she hinted at this morning." I sighed, when the bell rang we all went to our classes. I was on my way to music class, my fourth class of the day when a hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me away from the door, "What the hell."

When I spun fully around Jade was the one attached to the hand on my arm, "She wants these," Jade shoved a paper into my hand while taking a gulp of her coffee, "I figured you could use some help, because you didn't rat me out for the faked eye."

She turned back around and walked away right after that while I stared down at the purple boots in the picture in my hand, I smiled at her back and then turned to walk into my classroom.

That night I bought the shoes and called Andre, I mean I couldn't very well be excited about this to anyone else, could I? When he came in I pounced on him, dragging him to the table where I pulled out the box of shoes and showed them to him.

"Awesome, you got some boots."

"No, these are boots Trina's wanted for months, someone overheard her talking about wanting them for her birthweek today and told me, and I got them! This is the best present ever!" I squealed, and then I noticed the front door opening. I slammed the shoes back down on the chair as Trina stepped into the house.

"Guess what I got?" she squeaked, she jumped up on the table and did a little jig, that's when I noticed the purple boots on her feet. The same boots as the ones in the box on my chair, "they were on sale! Mom!" she screams, running up the stairs.

"Great, I paid 300 dollars for these things and she finds them on sale." I sigh and sit down on the other chair; Andre sits next to me and grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze. I frown and look at the shoes, what was I going to do with them? What was I going to get Trina?

"Okay, guys I really need ideas." Around the table nobody really had any good ideas, but I wrote them down anyways, "Jade."

"yeah." She replied, looking up from her phone.

"What should I get Trina?"

"Talent." She looked back down at her phone bored, I rolled my eyes, why had I bothered with asking her? I closed my laptop and started stabbing viciously at my salad. Trina was going to kill me if I didn't get her an amazing present.

"Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you write her a song?" Andre suggested, I glanced over at him, nodding enthusiastically.

"Yeah, yeah…" I sigh, I can't write songs though. I suck at writing my own songs. I tell him just that and he offers to help me write the song after school and we finish eating before the bell rings and everyone heads their separate ways.

After school Andre and I sit down in my living room writing a song for Trina, half way through the writing process and singing the pieces of the song the person I was singing for was not Trina.

"We need to make this song faster. Like way faster. Way too slow." I told him, taking the keyboard and playing a few notes, he must've liked where I was going with this so he took it back and messed with the song until it was perfect, and instead of being reminded of the person who was not Trina, I was just thinking it was a fun song.

We rehearsed my vocals but I could not come up with a solid dance, I just seemed to be hopeless tonight. "Well, Jade's a good dancer. Maybe she can help you." Andre said, "I've got to get home and do some homework, maybe you can come up with a dance while I'm not here. If not, call Jade."

He left a few minutes later and I retreated to my room to try and work on coming up with a dance. I was really getting one down to, when I spun into a hard body and crashed to the ground, my ear buds fell from my ears and when I looked up Jade was smirking up at me.

"Hey Vega, nice dance." Her voice was full of mocking and I wanted to hit her for it. It's not my fault I never really trained in dancing. I usually just got taught the moves. I didn't reply to her as I got to my feet, "Andre called me, sent me the song. I think I've got the dance figured out. Unless you were planning on doing the dance I just saw…"

I scowled at her and pulled the Pearpod out of the waistband of my shorts and tossed it on my bed, "No, I just can't come up with anything to use, at all. So I'm glad Andre called you. Ready to teach me?"

Jade shrugged, clearing a small space on the floor and tossing her bag on my bed. The rest of the night we spent going over the dance until my feet hurt and Jade was too tired to be nice to me anymore. The anger took over into bitter, bitchy outbursts if I made one wrong step, but in the end I was completely happy with what she'd come up with. I'd even added a few things in myself.

Now we were both sprawled out on the floor, trying to catch our breaths. "alright, so what are you going to wear?"

"I was thinking about wearing this zebra print dress with roses on it, I bought it awhile ago but I never really got a chance to wear it." I pushed myself to my feet and walked to the closet to pull the dress down.

Jade was standing by the closet door when I spun around, I held the dress out to her, "It'll look nice." She muttered to herself, "shoes?" I pointed to a pair of black heels she looked them over, "try dancing in them, put em on."

I kicked off the tennis shoes I was wearing and slipped into the heels, taking my place in the center of the room to work on the dancing parts, and then she had me walk down the stairs and try the whole thing, pretending Jade was Trina.

Once more the words changed meaning and I practically ran upstairs when I was done with the excuse that I had to pee, "Vega, its nearly midnight, can I just stay here? I'll give you are ride to school tomorrow." Jade called through the door.

"Okay." I called back from where I was sitting on the closed toilet lid, my knees pulled up to my chest. I was trying to catch my breath, but I knew I wasn't short of breath because of the dancing.

I'd gotten too close to Jade while I was doing the performance, too close to her. I could smell the French Vanilla coffee on her breath. It sucked more because she was such a different Jade when she wasn't in front of someone from school.

"Vega, are you okay?" I'd been in the bathroom for about 10 minutes now and my back was starting to ache. I slowly unfolded from the toilet and stretched until my back popped and then I walked over and open the door.

"Yeah a little sick." I told her, picking up the heels off of the floor before crossing into my room, "I'm too tired to pull the bed out; you can do it if you want, or sleep on the other half of my bed. I don't care."

I tossed the shoes into my closet, crawled into my bed, and checked my phone one last time. I texted Andre that I'd gotten a dance down, then I curled up and fell into a dreamless sleep, half aware of the bed going down beside me and the warm body brushing against mine.


	9. Just A Kiss

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Eight:_ Just A Kiss**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

"Vega." Somebody was shaking my shoulders, hands roughly gripping my shoulders and clawing them in an attempt to wake me it worked but I wasn't moving, "Vega, don't make me slap you."

"What do you want Jade?" I groaned, curling up tighter to get away from her. She pulled me back toward her, "What?" I dragged my eyelids open; she was hovering above me, her hair around us like a curtain.

"Your phone keeps going off every five minutes, I swear if you don't pull it out of your bra and answer it I will fucking strangle you." She hissed and then flopped back down next to me. I rolled back onto my side just as my phone started going off again, "Vega!"

"If it's bothering you so much you get it. I'm comfortable." I mumbled, not expecting her to roll over on top of me, stick her hand down my top and pulled the phone from my bra, I got a glimpse of 'two am' on my phone and Jade hit accept.

"Why are you calling at two in the morning?" Jade hissed, "Excuse me?" she pulled the phone away from her ear, looked at the screen, and then pressed it back to her ear, "I'm her girlfriend, so if you'd kindly fuck off I'd greatly appreciate it."

She hit end on the phone and tossed it across the room, then she dropped back down, her arm dropped over my side and quickly fell back to sleep. Now I was wide awake, she was completely pressed against me, her chest brushing against my back every time she inhaled, her breath skittering across my neck as she exhaled.

Normally it was an odd feeling for me, but for some reason knowing it was Jade it just made me hyper aware of everything Jade was doing, and she was asleep. Her arm moved forward, coming to rest across my crossed arms and pull me closer to her, her legs twisted through mine and her head moved to rest on mine, her breath gone from the back of my neck.

A short while after that I finally managed to fall back to sleep, waking up at five when Jade's head clunked into mine, my eyelids snapped open and met hers. We were lying close together, my arms were around her back and hers went around my waist.

"We should probably get up." Jade muttered, "You've got a long day of practice ahead of you after school. Can I borrow some clothes?"

"Sure, are you going to shower?" Jade nodded, and I rolled out of my bed, "Me first. Go ahead and dig through my stuff." I hopped across the floor and into the bathroom. Trina was already gone for the morning. She was never home in the morning for her actual birthday, and she wouldn't come back home until around six.

I closed and locked the door, turning on the shower to let it warm up while I stripped, brushed out my hair, and washed my face. Then I hopped into the shower, speedily shampooed, conditioned and washed my body, tossing a towel around my body once I got out.

Jade was waiting and went straight into the bathroom as soon as I opened the door; she jarred my shoulder as she walked past nearly knocking me down. With a sigh I walked back into my room where I toweled my body off, pulled on some under clothes and browsed through my closet, settling on a pair of jeans and a dark purple shirt for the day while I toweled my hair

The shower was still running when I stepped out of the closet and sat down at my desk to do my makeup. It was strange, having Jade so casually dropped back into my life. Nothing seemed different, but everything was.

We weren't friends; I knew that and she made it painfully clear every time one of us got to close to the other. But yet she so carelessly walked into my house, crawled into my bed, answered my phone and had no shock or repulsion to waking up wrapped in my arms.

Jade's voice pulled my mind to the present, "Vega, you don't happen to have an extra tooth brush?" I could see her in the mirror, standing in my doorway in a towel with her dripping wet hair clinging to her shoulders. The makeup she'd slept in was gone and her eyes looked as if she'd been crying. Strange.

"Left drawer closest to the sink." I replied, pausing in the act of putting on my eyeliner. She walked back out of the room without another word. I finished my eyeliner and swept some purple shadow onto the lids.

Once I was done I went back to my closet and found a pair of heeled black boots to stuff my feet in. As I was stepping out of my bedroom Jade was pulling open the bathroom door. I walked into the bathroom as she went into my room, trading places without even brushing arms.

I brushed my still damp hair; finger twisted it into curls and bushed my teeth. Jade and I both stepped into the hallway at the same time, "ready?" she asked, I nodded and then we went down the stairs, our foot steps matched in rhythm.

My dad was returning to the house as we got to the door, "hey sweetheart, have a good day at school." He gave me a half hug, kissed the top of m head and copied the action with Jade, "Nice to see you again, Jade." and then disappeared in the direction of my parents bedroom.

"You're dad must've been really tired. I don't think he's ever hugged me, let alone kissed my head." She laughed lightly slightly nervous but a little, dare I say it, happy. I watched the way her eyes lit up as we walked out the door, but once the coffee shop was in view the light mood between us vanished and 'School-Jade' was back.

I let out a long sigh, running inside to get our coffee before Jade drove us the rest of the way to school, trashy rap music filling the silence between us so we wouldn't dare sing along to the music together. We went our separate ways once we reached the school, she went to Beck's truck and I went to find Andre inside.

Andre was sitting below his locker next to Beck's with Cat and Robbie, who unfortunately had Rex propped up on the wall beside Cat, "Hey Tor!" Cat called cheerfully. I nodded in acknowledgement and dropped down next to Andre on the ground.

"Jade suggested you guys come over and watch me run through the dance a few times, in case you see something she missed. I personally think she wants to see how long it takes my legs to stop working." I grumbled, Andre laughed softly and Cat giggled into her hand, but Robbie stared at me with a dumb look on his face.

"What dance?" Rex asked, I narrowed my eyes at the puppet.

"The dance she's doing with the song Andre helped her write for Trina, and no you're not invited." Jade intoned from behind him as she stepped up to our small group with Beck, who had his arm casually slung over her shoulder, her arms were in front of her where both of her hands grasped her coffee.

Now that she was standing in front of her I examined what she took from me. A short black skirt I had shoved in the back of my closet that fell just barely below her fingertips, some ripped up leggings that she must've already had 'cause I knew they weren't mine, and a long sleeved dark purple almost black shirt.

"Am I invited?" Beck asked, looking down at his girlfriend a crooked grin on his face. She narrowed her eyes up at him, "I never get to see any of your chorography." He complained, a teasing tone to his voice.

"You're invited Beck." I told him before Jade could protest, "I need all the opinions I can get."

"So…"

"No, Rex, you're still not invited." I snapped, he demanded that Robbie get him away from us, so the boy awkwardly got to his feet and scrambled away. I leaned against my locker heavily and let out a long sigh. I really needed to stop sighing so much.

About ten minutes later the bell rang and we all dispersed to our separate classes. By the time Sikowitz's class rolled around I was dead on my feet and Sikowitz was absent today, so we had the principal watching over us.

I took this as an opportunity to curl up in my chair and fall asleep. The bell woke me up an hour later and I nearly fell out of the chair, much to everyone's amusement, before I trudged out the door behind everyone else, but instead of going to the grub truck, I went to our habitual table and fell back asleep.

Sadly about five minutes later someone bumped my hip and shoved a burrito in front of me with a coffee. I ate quickly and then chugged the coffee gratefully, turning to Jade with a thankful smile.

"So you think you'll be able to keep yourself awake through Trina's performance." Andre asked me.

"With about six more coffees." I half-joked, "I'll be fine. I'll catch up on my sleep this weekend."

Of course, later that afternoon I wasn't so sure I'd still be fine. I was completely exhausted from the dance and Jade waking me up for an hour at two this morning. But I went upstairs, showered and changed into my outfit anyways, coming downstairs and doing a dry run one more time before Trina got home.

"I'll stick around to record this." Jade told me before turning to her boyfriend, "Beck you going to stay?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go get some coffee for us though. Andre, you wanna come with me?" he nods and the pair leave Jade and I alone in my house once again. I hear cars roll up outside, but I know none of Trina's friends will shuffle in until later, they'll stay outside. Not really sure why, but that's what always happens.

"I've got to go fix my makeup." I muttered, heading for the stairs with my feet dragging behind me, "you can stay down here or come up with me, I don't care." I told her and then climbed slowly step by step. Jade trudges behind me silently.

I brush on the makeup quickly wipe of the smudges, fix the rest and then slump down on my bed, staring up at the starry ceiling above me. Jade was sitting at the end of my bed, picking her nails absently.

And then I heard the familiar rumble of Beck's car pulling up, the doors slamming and Andre called up the stairs that Trina was home. When we got downstairs her friends had walked in, and I disappeared half up the stairs out of her sight.

I heard her come in with my parents, talking all surprised. She didn't say anything about Jade, Beck or Andre, so either she hadn't noticed or she didn't care. I knew someone pushed her into a chair and the music started.

With one calming breath I took the first step and started my performance. Trina looked gleeful and happy the whole time, and up until I finished I thought I'd gotten her a great birthday present, and then she asked, "So where's my present?" and anger built inside me and burst out.

That started a fight and landed Andre and my parents outside because Jade and Beck had retreated to my room to upload the video to theSlap. I assumed. After a screaming match I slammed the flash drive with the song into her chest and stormed upstairs, barely refraining from slapping her, or worse, punching her. Rage bubbled inside of me as I stormed up the stairs.

"Fuck her; she's such a snotty little bitch!" I screamed, ripping off my shoes and throwing them across the room. Beck gasped in shock while Jade just leaned back in my chair with a smirk on her face, "That was a _great _song! And any other person would have been pleased with it, if not ecstatic! What the hell did I need to do to get her a good birthday present? Sell my kidney and buy her the damn moon?"

"Tori come on…that song was good." Beck tried to assure me in his usual calm manner, but my anger wasn't going to be quelled that easily, I felt like it was just exploding like a volcano and was still oozing like magma.

"Vega, you're going to break something." Jade said in a playfully sarcastic tone. I turned my glare on her and threw my other shoe right past her head. She hardly even flinched, knowing, or maybe trusting, that I wouldn't actually hit her. When the shoe smashed into a ceramic shoe Trina had gotten me for my last birthday the anger seemed to drain out of me and I dropped down on my bed with my face buried in my hands.

"Alright, I can see you're going to cry, and I'm not dealing with that." I heard a noise that sounded like Jade standing up and someone's boots shuffled across the carpet, "come on babe."

"Jade, can't you see she's upset?" Beck said, I heard Jade hiss with an intake of breath and when I pulled my face away from my hands she was narrowing her eyes at Beck who was glaring right back.

"I'm fine. I just need some sleep, and can one of you ask my mom to keep Trina away from me." I flopped onto my back and pulled my legs up on my bed, closing my eyes. I hardly heard the door click before I was out like a burnt out bulb.

I slept until 3pm on Saturday, when my body finally registered I had to pee, really bad. I stumbled out of bed and across the hall into the bathroom; once I took care of my bladder I stumbled back into my bedroom and landed in front of my laptop, scrolling through the comments on my video.

Everyone but Trina seemed to love my performance. Anger coursed through my veins again and I slammed the top of my laptop closed and changed out of my dress and into a pair of sweat pants and a white t-shirt before crawling back into my bed, and passing out once more.

Later that week Trina sold the damn song, pretended it was her singing, then had me singing and then Beyonce wanted it, it was a mess and frustrated me to no end. I ignored Trina for the next week and stayed locked in my room whenever I was at home with her.

It was a Tuesday two weeks after the Trina fiasco when I walked into school and unwittingly right into the path of a Jade and Beck fight. I was just minding my own damn business, steering clear of the fighting pair when they pounced and pulled me into their fight like a helpless gazelle.

"Hey! Tori come here!" Beck called, I inwardly groaned but shuffled over to them, "If you were my girlfriend..." he started to ask before Jade cut him off.

"Ugh! Great way to start the question." She yelled sarcastically.

Beck shook his head and ignored her little interruption, calming asking me his question, "Would you be all freaked out that I'm just friends with Alyssa Vaughn?"

"Who cares what she thinks?" Jade continued to rage on. I sighed, ignoring the soft pang in my chest. Jade had been moody ever since she saw the picture the paparazzi snapped of Beck and Alyssa Vaughn leaving their yoga class. He told me she even threw a rock at him. I didn't want to get in the middle of this, but I was already here.

"Honestly, I wouldn't love it." I told him, and that was true. I'd be pissed if I was dating someone and they were just friends with a celebrity that hot. Whether or not I believed they would cheat, I wouldn't trust the person they were 'just friends' with.

Jade suddenly walked to my side, wrapping her arm around my shoulder and grabbing the arm next to her with her hand, "_I_ care what she thinks." She said unaware that her touching me was sending shockwaves through my body and making me highly uncomfortable.

She let me go quickly and I started to step away, "How can you say that? You don't eve-."

I cut Beck off, stepping away from the pair, "You know, I really don't want to be in the middle of this." I spun and started walking away, but Jade grabbed me and hauled me back over, protesting that I had to stay and help her.

"You don't think a girlfriend should be able to trust her boyfriend?" Beck asked.

"No, I do." I started to say.

"Get out of here Tori." Jade snapped.

"I'd love to!" and once more I went to walk away from this fight. Beck called for me to stay and I froze. I couldn't just walk away, and he knew that. Asshole. I walked back beside Jade as she finally opened her mouth.

"You know what?" She snapped, Beck raised an eyebrow, "we're, _done_." She growled.

"Jade!" I said at the same time Beck asked, "so you're breaking up with me?"

"Yeah." She nodded and started to watch away. I tried to ignoring the hope filled bubble blooming in my chest, my heart hammering against it just because Jade was now single. But Beck looked kind of upset.

"You're being ridiculous!" Beck called after her, Jade spun around.

"What'd you care? I'm not your girlfriend!" and then she was gone from our sight. I sighed, turning to look at Beck who was still semi-angry; he turned to me and shook his head sadly.

"I'm sorry Beck…" I whispered.

"I need someone to talk to, can you come to my place after school, please?" he asked, I sucked in a breath. I didn't want to get in the middle of this, but I sort of already was. I gave him a stiff nod, "thanks, Tori." He gave me a half hug and kissed the top of my head before walking to his class.

"Well that was strange." I muttered to nobody in particular as I walked off to my first period. The teacher couldn't hold my attention. My mind wandered off, why would Beck want to talk to me? Wasn't Andre his best friend? Cat?

I mean the pair of them were all whisper-y and let Jade snuggle with Tori instead of waking her up-y. Was something going on with the two of them? Maybe there was, I mean who else is okay with their girl friend snuggling with someone else? Had Cat told Beck about those pictures?

Now I was really worried, and all I could think about was Beck wondering if Jade was cheating on him with me. The thought plagued my mind all day and by the time lunch rolled around I just wanted to avoid him, so when I saw Jade scaring underclassmen away I towed Andre to her table and plopped myself down.

Jade glared at me, but I ignored her, opting for eating my lunch as fast as possible to go hide in the library and think this over. Sadly my sister ruined my plan, just as I was going to escape she came rushing to our table and my bad mood that seemed ever present when she was around crashed down on me.

"Where is Robbie? I'm going to kill him!" she screamed, Jade said something to her along the lines of go screw yourself and I just slammed my head down on the table. Andre asked if I was okay and Jade told me I was going to crack my skull open if I did it again, which she encouraged.

By the end of school I nearly forgot Beck asked me to come over, in fact I made it all the way home before I remembered. As I was stepping in the door, my phone rang. A text message from Beck asking where I was.

I texted back that I had to come check on my sick mom before I came over. My mom wasn't sick, just had the day off. I asked to borrow her car, hopped in and drove myself over to Beck's place.

There was an RV sitting in the driveway, but I nearly by passed until a bright red head popped out the door, "in here Tor!" Cat called. Oh god, Cat was here too? What was going on?

With a suppressed groan I forced myself out of the car and walked up to the door of the RV that Cat left hanging open. I stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind me. Cat was sitting on a couch and Beck was stretched out on his bed, the pair was watching All That.

"Hey Tori!" Beck called, sitting up and patting a space on his bed, "Thanks for stopping by."

"You're awfully, cheerful for someone that just got dumped." I observed, sitting down awkwardly beside him, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Jade." Beck replied instantly, "ever since you came to Hollywood Arts, Jade's been depressed unhappy, and all of our time together was her complaining about you. I was sick of it. The Alyssa Vaughn thing was staged; they were Cat's messages. I needed her to break up with me so she could have a chance to make herself happy, cause she sure as hell wasn't happy with me as her cover boyfriend."

Cover boyfriend? My eyebrows drew together in confusion, "Her _what_?" she'd told me that nobody knew, but Beck was her cover. Her damn cover, and she lied to me. All the lingering guilt I'd felt after those times she'd kissed me.

"Cover, you're shocked?" Beck almost laughed.

"Not shocked, just pissed because she lied to me." I told him. I laid back on his bed, "so complaining about me, huh?"

"Yep, to everyone, and I love Jade and all but she's getting on my nerves with it too." Cat voiced, my head snapped toward hers. She sounded different; the bubbling happy voice she always talked in was gone, replaced with a calmer, slightly more adult sounding Cat.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, "I mean, she kind of seems like she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you." Beck and Cat said in unison, "she just doesn't know what to do about her feelings." Cat concluded, "She told Beck that she spent the night when you first showed up talking to herself in an absent stupor."

"It was pretty strange. But I've noticed she's gone to you a lot, she willingly spent the night at your place the other night, crawled into bed with you that night when Cat and I were over. Cat said Jade told her to sleep in the pullout. And Jade has a pull out in her room too, did you use it?"

"No." I whispered. I laid at the foot of Beck's bed for about twenty minutes listening to the TV, they were on Pitbulls and Parolees now, and talking about some dog named Roxy, but my mind was still whirling with thoughts of Jade, "I'm going to strangle her." I decided.

When I pushed myself into a sitting position I found Beck and Cat were playing a find the difference game and I flipped onto my stomach as the three of us played for the next few hours.

Occasionally Cat or Beck would say some offhand comment about Jade, wondering where she was or what she was doing, but I had a feeling I knew. She would be mad at herself for dumping her cover and formulating a plan to get back with Beck or find a new one.

But one last question plagued my mind, why did she dump him? Why did she fight with him.

"Did someone else know about the texting? Was she fighting with you to keep up the appearance for someone?"

"I'm the one that told her about the messages Beck was getting." Cat supplied, I sighed with a short nod and rolled off of Beck's bed, "where you going Tori?"

"I need to go for a drive, clear my mind. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school." I picked up my bag, slid it onto my shoulder and started walking out the door. I paused on the last step and peeked my head back in, "thank you guys, for giving me the chance."

"Sure thing." Beck flashed me a smile while Cat was grinning like the Cheshire cat. It occurred to me then that the Cat at school that everyone knew may not be an act, but it was not all there was to the girl that was Cat Valentine.

I pushed the door shut behind me and sprinted to my car, slipping in and buckling as fast as I could. I started the car, slipped a CD into the player and backed out of the driveway. I drove until the CD ran out and flipped the stereo back on.

Sober by Pink was playing; I spun the volume up and pressed down harder on the gas pedal. I wasn't driving with a particular place in mind, just speeding around with the top down my hair blowing everywhere as songs blasted.

My mind was half on the road half on the thoughts bumping around inside. Most of them were about Jade and I was trying to shove them away when I'm a Bitch came on the radio after the Pink song ended. That was a song Jade and I used to sing all the time, and it coming on the radio had to be sign.

Suddenly I was driving on autopilot, and before the song ended I was in Jade's driveway, sprinting up to the front door. I knocked twice and her dad opened the door, "Is Jade here?" I asked hopefully.

"Not that I know of, you can go check her room." He stepped back and let me in; I bolted past him, up the stairs, down the hall and down the new set of stairs. Jade was not in here, so I dejectedly went back up the steps, slowly walked down the hallway and down the main staircase.

"If you find her, give me a call." He rattled off his number and I saved it in my phone, promising to call him, before I walked back down to my car. I ran through places she could be in my mind, but found no real ideas, so I just backed out and started to drive home.

When I pulled into my spot in the driveway I almost missed the white truck parked down by my mailbox. A hard look told me Jade was not inside the truck, so I jumped out, ran to the door and stepped inside.

The living room was empty, which meant there was one place Jade could be. I took the steps two at a time and slammed into my room. Jade was lying in my bed, makeup smudged from crying streaking down her face, but she was asleep.

I let out a relived sigh and quickly called her father to let him know where she was before I shut my bedroom and silently pulled off my boots, setting them by the door with my bag.

My eyes on Jade the whole time, I stripped the jeans I was wearing off, switching them for a pair of pajama's and my shirt for a clean tank top before I walked over to my bed, set my phone on the nightstand and crawled in next to Jade.

She shifted slightly when I lay down a smile pulling onto her lips, but didn't wake up. I moved closer to her, wrapping my arms around her until she was pressed against me. She shifted again, closer to me, tucking her head under my chin. I kissed the soft brown hair on her head and closed my eyes.

It was then that I heard the radio on the other side of my bed playing one song that seemed uncannily perfect, I softly sang along, "lying here with you so close to me, It's hard to fight these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe, caught up in this moment, caught up in your smile."

"I've never opened up to anyone, so hard to hold back when I'm holding you in my arms, we don't need to rush this, let's just take it slow." I continued, one hand reaching up to brush the hair away from her face. I pressed a kiss to her forehead and then closed my eyes, letting the soft music lull me to sleep.

**The next chapter will take awhile, I already wrote it, but I don't like how it turned out. I don't think it took on the emotion I wanted to. It read like words slapped on a page. I hope you liked the chapter though. Also, the Jade POV is written and I might post it in a stand alone story apart from this, because I wrote it when I writers block. Thanks for reading!**


	10. All or Nothing

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Nine: _All or Nothing**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**_A/N: _This is after Jade Dumps Beck, but possibly before Tori the Zombie, I'm not sure how I'm going to tie in the episodes with my plan, because it'd be boring to use the same plots; to me anyways. Enjoy, let me know what you think!**

When I woke up the next morning it was to a ringing phone, I twisted my arm around behind me and picked my blue pearphone up off of my night stand. Beck's name flashed across my screen, I hit accept and pressed the phone to my ear, grunting as a greeting.

"You find Jade last night? Her little brother called me looking; I put him on hold and figured I'd call you." Beck said without a hello, I yawned into the receiver before I answered

"She's with me; tell him I'll have her call him when she wakes up or after school." I hung up before he could reply, silenced my phone and threw it across the room, my arm wrapping back around Jade's warm body.

"I'm awake." Jade mumbled.

"I know, and now you're going to tell me why you were in my bed with makeup tracked down your face at 1 in the morning." I told her bluntly sitting up and displacing both of us, "I'll keep you here until you tell me."

"You going to keep me here against my will?" she asked, her voice lacking the usual sarcastic bite, so I know she's going to stay no matter what. I hooked my fingers under her chin and tilted her head back so she was looking up at me, "is that a yes?"

"It's a yes, Jade." I murmured softly, my eyes tracing her face, the black makeup coating her beautiful skin disgusting me, "Stay put." I demanded, rolling out of my bed. I spotted the clock next to my laptop; it was 10 in the morning that meant Beck hadn't been at school either, unless he was using the phone in the hallway or something.

I twisted my door knob and jerked open the door, walking across the hall into the bathroom, grabbed a washcloth, wet it and went back to my room where Jade was sitting on my bed looking like a lost puppy; "you've got a lot of makeup on your face." I whispered, handing it to her. She silently wiped her face off, managing to get it all off without a mirror. She could probably feel it caked on her face.

She handed me the cloth and I tossed it into my hamper, sitting down next to her on my bed again, "so talk, why'd you show up here?"

"I didn't know where else to go." She admitted, "I screwed everything up with Beck." She was playing the breakup card; I decided to let her drag this out as long as she wanted, or until I'd had enough of it.

"I'm sorry, is there anything I can do to help?" my eyebrows drew together in fake concern and I reached out to take Jade's hand in mine, giving it a squeeze. She frowned, her green eyes unsure as she studied my face.

"Kiss me." She whispered she looked lost. I was shocked to say the least and frozen in place as she leaned forward, crawling across the bed and over to me. Her face hovered inches from mine for a moment as she took a deep breath, waiting for me to say no, and then she pressed her soft lips to mine and I reacted instantly, leaning into the kiss.

She pushed me onto my back and I put my hands on either side of her face, pulling her closer as every part of my body went up in flames and my room faded away. All I could see and feel was Jade, the way her soft lips moved against mine, her teeth catching my bottom lip and biting softly, her tongue sweeping across my bottom lip and her hand tangling and pulling at my hair.

I let go of her face and grabbed her hips and pulled her closer, my hands moving up her back under her shirt, relishing the feeling of her soft skin on my fingertips again. Her nails bit into the exposed skin on my side as her painful kisses moved down to my neck and turned to a mixture of nips, sucking and kisses which I was sure might be more then a few hicky's.

And then she pulled away with a gasp and my world seemed to shatter like broken glass as reality returned to me. She was cowering up by my pillows and I was propped up by my elbows watching her, "I can't do this…I-Beck…" she whispered, I snapped.

Anger welled inside me as I sat up, "don't try that bullshit on me." I snarled. Her eyes widened in shock and we stood up on separate sides of the bed, "I know all about your _relationship_ with Beck. He told me."

"That jackass had no right!" she screamed her earlier fear being shoved aside by her short temper.

"He might not have had the right, but he did it because he cares about you!" I screamed back, "You need to stop hiding from your feelings, you're going to make yourself miserable pretending you don't still like me!"

"I don't like you, Vega." She hissed. I stalked over to her, balling my hand in her shirt and pulling her close to me, my mouth descending on hers before she could protest. She kissed me back enthusiastically, her arms wrapping around my waist as she pulled me closer. I pushed her away angrily.

"You're a liar Jade. And I don't care that you're lying to me, but quit lying to yourself!" I hollered, my chest heaving from the anger and breathlessness I felt from that kiss. Jade just started at me green eyes wide and nervous, swollen pink lips parted. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, but she didn't speak.

"I can't do this, Tori." What was left of the heart in my chest shattered and fell down into my stomach acid where it was quickly demolished. I could hardly feel the rest of my heart that Jade had locked in a box somewhere.

"Then get out. Don't you dare come back here to string me along if you can't do this. I don't deserve to be treated like a plaything." I walked over to my door feeling like a robot and pulled it open, "Now." The icy tone in my voice almost hurt my throat.

Tears burned my eyes as she picked up her bag and her shoes and rushed out the door. As soon as I heard the front door slam shut I crumpled to the floor, curling up in a tight ball as tears poured down my face, my nose was stuffed up in a matter of minutes and I was gasping for breath through my tears.

Something bright stung my eyes a few hours later and when they finally focused on the object I found my cell phone laying by my face, Cat's bubbling smiling face flashing on the screen, I hit accept and pressed the phone to my ear, "hello…" I whispered, my throat was sore and my voice was raspy and a little deep from my stuffed up nose.

"I'm coming over." Was her instant reply, and about ten minutes later I heard her sprinting up the stairs. I was lying behind the door, still curled up in a ball; she looked around my room confused and turned to leave when she spotted me.

She dropped down to the floor beside me and pulled me into her lap where I burst into frantic, crazed, choked sobbing tears again while she sat and stroked my hair tenderly as one would pet an injured animal. She started saying soothing, meaningless things and then changed to singing softly.

A few minutes later she coaxed me into sitting up and that was when Andre showed up, a box of pizza and a two liter of soda in his hands. I decided to break my moms rule and we ate the pizza in my room, sharing the bottle of soda while I told them what happened.

Andre, the great guy he is, didn't even question why Jade would kiss me, he just simply said that she was being an idiot and would come around eventually, and if she didn't then I shouldn't beat myself up over her loss.

After the pizza we went downstairs and played a zombie shooting game, Super Mario and Need For Speed for the rest of the afternoon. Beck showed up after school and Robbie five minutes after Beck.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing videogames, and even Trina joined in. After she trapped me in the kitchen and gave me a half hug, whispered I'm sorry about Jade in my ear and kissed my forehead.

Sometimes Trina could actually care about people besides herself and it made me feel ten times better, because she was my sister and no matter how much we fought I knew she'd always be there for me.

Jade didn't show up at school Thursday or Friday, nor did she show up at the bowling alley Friday night. Cat tried to invite her to the fair we were going to on Saturday but she ignored the call.

Sunday we all went to the mall, to a pizza parlor and then worked on homework together. Nobody really talked about Jade, and I assumed somebody had explained the situation to Robbie, because he didn't say anything to us either.

On Monday a note tumbled out of my locker when I opened it before Sikowitz's class. Vega was scrawled across the front of it. I carefully picked it up with a frown on my face. It was folded neatly, but crumbled like someone had been clutching it in their hand desperately.

I slowly unfolded it took a deep breath before reading.

_Tori, _

_I'm sorry for the other night. It's not that I don't want to be with you. I just can't I'm not in control when I'm around you and I can't stand it. But I can't be without you, not now that your back, I need you to be in my life. I need your friendship. It's selfish, I know, and I'm sorry._

_J.W._

I crumple the note up and shred it into a million pieces, tossing it in three different garbage cans on my way to class. Everyone was already inside, including Jade and there were two chairs left. One beside Jade and the other beside some blonde guy I didn't know.

I sat down next to the blonde and let my bag fall to the ground beside the chair, while Sikowitz blabbered on about stage presence I pulled out my phone, pulling open my inbox and starting a new message.

I typed Jade's number in from memory and typed the word 'no' biting my lip before I hit send. I heard Jade's phone vibrate and out of the corner of my eye saw her look at the message.

She masked her emotions well, I had no clue what she was feeling, but she typed back rapidly slipping her phone back into her pocket after. My phone buzzed.

_Why not? _

I sighed, pushing my phone into my pocket. I couldn't just be Jade's friend. Because I was in love with her, and I wanted more then just a friendship with her, I wasn't going to compromise.

All or nothing.

I told myself this over and over again, Andre told me this over and over again, and Cat told me to ignore the text but I just couldn't. At lunch I pulled my phone back and started a new message for Jade.

'I'm in love with you.'

That's all it said, and I watched as she read it. Her eyes lifted from the table and met mine, fear burning in their depths. I looked away before I started the water works, focusing all my attention on the crinkly, old gross salad in front of me.

"Tori." Beck's hand reached over the table and covered mine, pulling me out of my stupor, I glanced over at him nervously, "You okay?" he asks, and both he and Cat are looking at me with deep concern burning in their dark eyes.

"Yep, fine." I sigh, shoving my cell phone into my pocket and sitting up straighter, "I think I'm just going to go home early. I'm really tired." I pick up my bag and sling it over my shoulder, scoop my food box off of the table and dump it in the garbage can on my way to my mom's car.

I drive home as quickly as I can and go upstairs, tossing my phone onto my bed, my bag on the ground and myself in my computer chair. I started working on my homework, hoping that would keep me busy for the rest of the night, and luckily it did.

I woke up bright an early the next morning and took a nice long shower, letting the hot water wash over me for at least twenty minutes before I washed my hair and the rest of my body, then I spent another fifteen minutes before I got out, wrapped a fluffy blue towel around my body and walked into my room, grabbing a small towel for my hair as I passed the hall closet.

For some reason I was in a great mood, not to let it go to waste, I flipped on my stereo as I dried my hair and straightened it. While I worked on my hair I ran though the clothes I had in my closet, trying to figure out what I could wear.

Once I had my hair straightened I walked to my dresser, pulled on some underclothes, and stepped into my closet. I quickly pulled out a white half sleeve shirt with grey stripes, grabbed a pair of light washed ripped up jeans, and a pair of black pumps.

I tugged the clothes on, put on my old 'Hope' necklace and shoved my feet into my shoes. It was 5:30 by the time I was done brushing my teeth, which left me with 15 minutes extra.

I fixed my makeup and then skipped downstairs, "Tori! Can you get gas for my car on your way home?" My mom called, tossing me some keys. I nod and catch them without hesitation, spinning and walking out of the house.

I get into my moms car, start it, and pull out of the driveway. I listen to music turned all the way up as I drive, singing along happily. I hop out of my car at the coffee shop and dance my way up to the door.

I reach for the door at the same time as Beck, "Morning Tori." He pulls the door open for me and motions me inside, Cat follows me and Beck follows her, "feeling better I take it?" he inquires.

"Much." I reply with a smile, I step up to the counter and place my coffee and bagel order, pay and step aside for Cat and Beck to order. The three of us sit down at a table in the back once we get our orders so we can eat.

Half way through my bagel Andre and Jade show up, "Hey guys, over here!" Cat calls before turning to me with wide scared eyes. I smile at Andre and wave them over. Cat visibly relaxes and moves to sit next to Beck so Andre and Jade have a place to sit down.

Jade doesn't say anything to me, and I don't say anything to her, but we all talk and it's not awkward which I would have expected. We fall into an easy rhythm and only part ways to drive back to school, once we get to school we find places to sit around the staircase and continue our argument about who would win in a fight, Robbie or Rex.

"Oh please, that'd be like you winning a fight against Jade!" Andre laughed.

"No way, Tori would stand a chance against me, just not much of one." Jade laugh, "But why are we arguing about this anyways? Rex is a puppet!" I couldn't suppress the bubble of laughter that left my mouth when Robbie and Rex walked by arguing.

"I can't believe he still has that puppet." Cat sighed from beside me, her dark brown eyes following Robbie's movement across the hallways, "he wasn't always so dorky and helpless, but now…"

There are murmurs of agreement, but Jade and I sit there silently. The others had known him since elementary school, but Jade and I hadn't. He'd already had the creepy puppet when Jade switched here, so she had no clue what the others meant either.

The bell rang before we could find a new argument and we all went our separate ways. In Sikowitz's class we all sat in a semicircle waiting for our crazy teacher to show up, which he still hadn't done 30 minutes into class.

"Where is he?" Jade complained, "I've got better things to do."

"Like what?" Andre asked, all eyes turned to Jade.

"Cutting….things." her eyes must've held something I couldn't see since she had turned to look at him and put her back to me, because Andre gulped, sat back and looked away from her.

A few minutes later the door finally burst open and Sikowitz stepped in, "took you long enough!" Jade yelled.

"Lovely to see you Jade, Ah! Tori, you're back!" he nodded in my general direction, tossed his bag across the room and jumped into a lesson about accents around the world. I paid about half attention to what he was saying; my mind was off in another world of how tired I was after the long period in math with that stupid test.

When the bell rang I silently picked up my bag and went to follow Jade out of the room when Sikowitz halted us, "Tori, Jade, Andre, Beck, Cat and Robbie!" I faltered and took a few steps back so everyone could get back into the room, "how would you kids like to do me a favor? For money?"

"You do realize how creepy that sounds, right?" Jade asked from behind me, her breath moved my hair enough for Goosebumps to rise across my body.

"A friend of mine is having a party for her little girls and their friends and they wanted some princesses and princes to show up and sing some songs, and I told her that I could get a few of you together…" murmurs went around, all of us looking anywhere but at Sikowitz's begging eyes, "two hundred dollars each…"

"I'll do it." Cat caved first, it was usually her or me.

"Me too." I agreed, having looked up at his pathetic face and those begging eyes. He had the kicked puppy look down pat.

"Alright, I'm in." Jade added, everyone else quickly agreed, Sikowitz told us the details and explained we had a 400 dollar spending cap for our outfits along with two hundred each for showing up to the party and performing.

We had until Saturday to find outfits and figure out who was doing what. He also handed us a list of prince and princesses we could choose from. I took the list and then we went to eat lunch in a hurry, deciding to meet at my place to work out what we were doing.

Thankfully Trina, mom and dad went out for the afternoon so we didn't have to try to hide what we were doing from Trina and her nosiness. We sat around on my red couches while I read the names of characters off the list.

"Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Jasmine, Esmeralda, Anastasia, and Kayley. For the guys, The Prince, Prince Charming, Eric, Prince Philip, Prince Adam AKA the Beast, Aladdin, Le Shang, Prince Naveen, and Flynn Rider."

"Well none of you are blonde so we should take Cinderella and Aurora off the list." Beck said, I crossed those out, "I'll go as Aladdin I guess." He added. I scribbled his name next to that.

"I'll go as Ariel!" Cat chirped happily.

"I'll go as Naveen." Andre said, I nodded and scribbled his name down along with Cat's, "and maybe Robbie should go as Prince, or Eric. I'd say Eric."

"Who's Kayley?" Robbie asked, ignoring Andre.

I faked offence, "You don't know?"

"It's one of Tori's favorite movies." Jade supplied casually, as if she was stating the date, "Quest for Camelot. And if you ask who Anastasia is she'll probably slap you." I nodded in agreement and looked down at the list; unsure of whom I was going as.

"I'll go as Snow White." Jade told me leaning over to look at the list, I scribbled her name down. And looked at the people left on the list. I frowned, unsure of which of these I could be. I guess I could go as Jasmine, or a really tan version of Belle, Jade was peering over my shoulder, "You should probably go as Jasmine."

"I was just thinking that." I mumbled as I scribbled my name beside Jasmine, "so we should go shopping at some point and work on the songs were going to do…and meet somewhere else because Trina will no doubt try to get into this."

"We can meet at my house." Cat offered in a cheerful voice, I looked around seeing if anyone else would offer, because with Cat's brother around I certainly did not want to be trying to get ready there.

"We can meet at my place; I'm supposed to be dog sitting anyways." Andre offered, I inwardly sighed in relief. We agreed to go shopping tomorrow, settled on songs to sing, because they wanted more then the standard songs the characters sing.

Then we all went our separate ways because I had to work on homework so did Beck, Robbie, and Cat and Andre had to go pick up the dog he was sitting and I didn't bother finding out why Jade left.

After I finished up I crawled into my bed and just laid there, staring up at my star covered ceiling. I had the lights off and the strings of lights turned on. My room glowed like the evening sky, the white lights bounced off of the gold stars making them shine and I just smiled, drifting off to sleep while I gazed at the stars.

"_Jade?" I called, my hand resting on the frame of her door. I was peering down the staircase trying to see through the blinding darkness. One step at a time I moved down the steps. The door slammed shut behind me and I jumped, but I kept going, "Jade?"_

_I reach the bottom step and find that her string lights are now plugged in, illuminating the room enough to where I can see her legs tangled in her sheets, "Jade?" I call again, stepped forward, closer to her bed._

_My hand reaches out and I gently shake her foot, her eyes snap open and she sits up, grabbing me and pulling me down onto her bed, flattening me to the mattress with her hands holding my wrists above my head, "Tori…what the hell." She whispered._

"_I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." I whispered, her glare softened and she smiled at me._

"_It's okay, babe. Glad you're home from work." She leaned down and kissed me softly, her grip on my wrists loosing until she fully let them go and her hands were roaming up under my shirt, tickling my sides as her tongue explored my mouth._

_She pulled away to soon, rolling back onto her side of the bed once she did, and her arm went around my waist and pulled me against her, "you going to sleep in your jeans?" she asked._

_I shook my head and shimmed out of them, throwing them across the room as I curled up next to her taking her left hand in mine. Which is when I noticed the rings, we both had wedding bands on our left hands._

_I looked back at Jade over my shoulder. We're we married? Was I looking at my wife?_

"_Tori, we have to get up early tomorrow, go to sleep." She kissed my shoulder softly and pulled me closer; my eyes fell closed, briefly taking in a picture on the wall of us. I was in a white dress, she was in a dark blue dress, and we were standing under an alter._

I sat up with a gasp, my eyes darting around the dark room. I was back in my room now, still 16 year old me. No wedding ring, not married to Jade, not anything to Jade. I flopped back on my bed with a long sigh.

What the hell was that dream?

**The Jade story will be separate from this one, and posted soon.**

**I hope you enjoyed, the next update will probably postponed due to some personal problems. Sorry about that. I hope this will hold you over until then.**


	11. Pizza and Pina Coladas

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Ten: _Pizza and Pina Coladas. **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

"Seriously Cat?" Jade practically growled, "the dress has to be pink. We can go shopping for your personal outfits another time."

Cat ignored the hostile tone Jade's voice had and spun around in the green dress, it did look nice on her, but Jade was right, "We can shop for a dress for you another time, for now we need to find a dress for you to wear to the party."

"Fine." Cat fake sighed, a glimmer of joy shinning in those brown eyes, and shuffled back into the dressing room. Ever since that night at Beck's Cat has been more up front with her non-Cat attitude. It was a weird change to me, hearing Cat's bubbly voice replaced with a serious calm voice.

Jade was looking back at her phone while her foot was tapping beside our bags. We'd already finished our shopping; now we're just waiting for Cat to get her own dress. I switched the legs I had crossed and drummed my fingers on my knee.

A few minutes later Cat emerged redressed, the green gown draped over her arm. "I'll be back." She skipped away and left Jade and I alone. I leaned back against the couch with a soft sigh, my eyes falling closed as I listened to Jade's nails tapping on her screen.

And I must've snoozed off or spaced out because the next thing I knew Cat was pulling my arm and dragging me out of the store. Jade was following behind us with the bags in her hand, her eyes still glue to her phone, her thumb running over her keys at a rapid pace.

We walked out to her car, Jade dumped the bags in the trunk and got in the drivers seat beside me. Cat was in the backseat with her face also glued in her phone. Jade dumped her phone in the cup holder between us, put her seat belt on and started the car.

She hit play on her pearpod and the music filled the otherwise comfortable silence between the three of us. It really shocked me how comfortable the silence was between us. Jade had found out about Beck and Cat's plan and completely blown up at Cat.

But now Cat was happily chatting with Jade from the backseat and dragging me into a conversation about the Diddly Bops Jade was trying to work her way out of. I turned it out, humming and nodding at the appropriate moments until I threw myself out of the car at Andre's house.

The three of us made it up to the door relatively quickly, Andre opened the door and ushered us into the living room. We had a short list of the songs we were going to sing, after calling our boss.

Jade would be singing Someday my Prince Will Come, I'm Wishing, and Whistle While You Work. Cat would be singing Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl and Under the Sea with Robbie. Beck would be singing One Jump and A Whole New World with me. And all of us would take requests afterwards. We practiced everyday until Friday night. We all agreed to take separate cars and meet there so we could flee as fast as possible.

I was just fixing my top Saturday when my phone started ringing, I picked it up and turned on the speaker phone when I answered it, "what?"

"Well aren't you cheery today." Jade's sarcastically sweet voice filled my room, my heart skipped a beat and my steps faltered, "I need a ride, my car broke down. Can you come pick me up?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in 10 minutes." I replied without hesitation, silently smacking myself in the head_. You're not helping yourself_ _out by giving her a ride Tori._ She grunted and hung up, allowing me to fling my phone across the room and curse at myself as I slipped on the pale blue slippers I'd gotten to go with my outfit.

With a backwards glance at the mirror to check that my wig was in place I sped out the door, mom waved goodbye quickly as I yanked the door closed behind me and crawled into the driver's seat. I fixed the seat, checked my mirrors and slid on my seat belt, locking the door as an after thought.

I didn't bother with the radio after I started the car; instead I put it in reverse, backed out of the driveway and drove toward Jade's house. Once I'm outside her house I text her to let her know I was here.

She was out the door in a matter of seconds and all I could do was stare. Her hair was black. Dark, onyx black. Short, stopping by her chin in perfect curls. Her eyes were lined with black that matched and covered in purple blue and yellow shadow. The dress she found was really just a blue corset with red strings and a flowing yellow skirt, but it looked amazing on her.

"Lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow." I whispered to myself a small smile pulling on my lips as I watched her rush toward the car, eyes cast down, black curls bobbing on her shoulders, obviously a wig, but a damn good wig at that.

She yanked open the door a slid in, she narrowed her eyes at me which made me realize I was staring. I cleared my throat and backed out of her driveway. The house the party was at was only a block and a half away from her house, but I didn't blame her for not wanting to walk there.

I checked my wig in the rearview mirror; it was big, long, and poofy and looked nearly identical to Jasmine's hair, thanks to Cat's amazing talents with hair and makeup. I was wearing a mini blue top with lace that covered my flat stomach and a pair of light blue pants that hung away from my legs.

The party wasn't starting for another hour, but most of us weren't planning on showing up fully dressed, like Cat who wouldn't be able to wear her dress in her mom's small car, so she would be getting ready at the house.

Andre was staying with his grandmother, and she would probably freak out if he left the house in his little outfit, and Beck just flat out refused to wear his in public, same with Robbie. He claimed it was because he didn't want to loose what was left of the little self esteem he had.

Obviously Jade and I were the only ones, apart from Cat, confident enough to make fools out of ourselves. As we got out of the car I could feel neighbor's eyes on us, but I didn't care. I had pulled in behind Andre's car, he was behind Beck who had brought Robbie, and of course Cat was brought by her mother.

The birthday girls name was Lara, and her mothers name was Alyssa. Alyssa was pretty similar to Jade's step mother look wise, but she had a much better personality. She greeted us with a warm smile and showed us into the room we were using as a dressing room, one of the at least 20 that had to be in this house.

Inside my friends were in various states of changing. Cat was in a pair of pink shorts and a pink tank top, sitting in front of a vanity while she did her makeup. Beck was wearing the flowing white pants that looked like they could be from either Aladdin outfit and was helping Robbie straighten his hair. Robbie was in a simple pair of black pants and a pirate shirt.

Andre was adjusting his green shirt and watching Cat getting ready, because the girl was creating quite a scene about her hair being messed up. She rushed over to Beck and Robbie, snatched the flat iron from them and fixed her hair in a matter of seconds.

Jade and I sat on the opposite side of the room, watching the chaos the others were going through. 30 minutes later Cat was in her pink dress with the fluffy arms, her hair done perfectly and a huge grin on her face. 10 minutes after that, Andre was done 15 minutes after he finished, Beck and Robbie were ready.

We had about five minutes to prepare to sing and then shuffle outside to prepare. The birthday girls friends were all outside already, and the birthday girl herself walked out moments after us, wearing a Cinderella dress. She squealed with delight when she saw us and we started singing Happy Birthday.

After we finished Jade started in on Someday My Prince Will Come, Cat followed her, Andre followed Cat, Beck and I followed Andre and then Cat and Robbie sang a song. Once we were done with what we practiced we started taking requests.

"Sing Ever, Ever, After!" the birthday girl called out, "Snow White and Jasmine!" I glanced at Jade who shrugged and we quickly argued about who would sing what before we stepped on stage.

I started "Storybook endings, fairy tales coming true. Deep down inside we want to believe they still do. In our secretest heart."

Jade followed, "it's our favorite part of the story, let's just admit we all want to make it too.."

We sung together, "Ever, ever after, If we just don't get it our own way. Ever, ever after. It may only be a wish away."

I turned and pointedly stared at Jade, "Start a new fashion, wear your heart on your sleeve. Sometimes you reach what's real just by making believe. Unafraid, unashamed, there is joy to be claimed in this world. You even might wind up being glad to be you." Her eyebrows rose slightly but she ignored me.

Together we sang, "Ever, ever after, though the world will tell you it's not smart. Ever, ever after, the world can be yours if you let your heart, believe in ever after." Jade looked away from me.

"No wonder your heart feels it's flying, your head feels its spinning, each happy ending's a brand new beginning. Let yourself be enchanted, you just might break through." Jade sang out, her voice shaking a bit. I seemed to be the only one that noticed.

I sang a little louder to cover her still shaking voice, "To ever, ever after, forever could even start today. Ever, ever after, maybe it's just one wish away, you're ever, ever after, I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss. Oh, for ever, ever after." I let out a long breath after we finished and hopped off the make shift stage, making a beeline for Andre.

There were more requests, and lots more songs, my feet were killing me and so was my throat. By the end of the day I was dead on my feet and as I threw myself in the car I just wanted to crawl into my bed, and a thunderstorm had made its way in about twenty minutes, causing my hasty retreat. I hardly noticed Jade followed me.

"You can stay at my place until the rain clears, Vega. Since it's closer." Jade offered, "and crawl into the back seat, I'll drive." Without arguing I crawled into the back seat and let Jade drive back to her house. Thunder rumbled through the air, my body shook violently, my eyes were squeezed shut, rain poured down on the window, tears rolled out of my eyes.

Jade pulled into her garage and shut the car off, barely turning to look at me as she got out of the car. I stumbled out, wiping my face before following her inside and taking the keys she tossed my way. My hands were shaking and my legs barely helped me stay up right, but at least I'd stopped crying. I hated how childish storms made me.

Nobody was at her house when we walked in; it was eerily silent except for the rain outside and the thunder rumbling every few minutes shaking the windows. I quickly sped after Jade and down the stairs into her room where the storm was no longer able to reach my ears.

"Here put these on." Jade tosses a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt at me. I catch the pants and drop the shirt. She points toward the bathroom, telling me that is where I should change. I pick up the shirt and rush into the bathroom.

In Jade's mirror I can see the bit of rain that managed to hit me had smeared my eye makeup and I had horrifying black streaks running down my face. I turned on her water and splashed it on my face, rubbing until it was clean. I pulled the wig and cap off of my head too, tossing them down on the counter with a distasteful look. That thing was heavy and itchy.

Then I changed into the sweat pants and tugged on the thick shirt Jade had handed me. Her scent, a mix of amber and French Vanilla, made my head spin. I pulled the shirt up and inhaled deeply.

_Oh god, if there wasn't a damn thunderstorm out there I'd be going home_. I sighed,_ just act normal Tori. _I tell myself a few times before I finally pull the door open and step into Jade's room.

She's sitting at her desk, the small mirror in front of her while she unpins her hair. I sink down into the chair next to her bed, spinning it to face her. As she undoes the pins and removes the wig along with her bald cap her long brown locks tumble down her back, sleek, straight and shinning. Her hair frames her face, now free of makeup, she looks stunning.

I force myself to look over at something else, and they land on the creepy shelves on her wall. My eyes snap back to Jade's face, "you look nice with black hair." I tell her, my voice barely a whisper.

"Thanks. You look pretty damn bad with it." She tells me, pointedly staring at my hair. I hadn't taken my hair down from where it was pinned up to put the wig on. Slowly I reached up and unpinned my hair; layer after layer tumbled down my back until I was done.

Jade watched me the whole time, a weird look in her eyes that I didn't like. We couldn't get into this now. I couldn't just run out of her house this time. I had to drive my car home, and I can't drive in the rain.

"So you want to play a video game or something?" I asked nervously, clearing my throat and looking away from Jade. I see her nod slowly out of the corner of my eye, "I'll find one while you change…" I offer, staring pointedly at the wall.

"There over with the DVDs." She tells me before heading into her closet. I walk over to the book case and browse through her games until I find a Resident Evil game. I walk over and put it into her Wii and then I grabbed two remotes and plopped back down into that chair.

After the game was set and ready to go Jade finally emerged in a pair of purple sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt. She sat down on her bed, snatched a remote away and picked her character. I picked the other one and the game began.

I'd like to say I kicked her ass, but I can't. She beat me hands down, or heads off, with 10 headshots to my 9 and 46 enemies killed to my meager 20, in just the first round. My game improved a little but she still kept beating me.

Eventually we stopped playing, both of us hungry, and we wandered upstairs. I suppose at some point it had stopped raining, the sun was shinning dimly now as it sunk below the horizon.

"You want pizza? I want pizza." Jade decided, walking over to her house phone. Without waiting for my answer she called to order a large pepperoni pizza and a two leader of soda.

While we waited for the pizza Jade showed me around her large home. The rooms in her house were either empty or guest rooms except for her father's room, her brothers, hers, the living room and the large recording studio.

But she did have one really amazing room, there was another staircase down by her room that led up to the attic, which Jade had cleaned up and rebuilt into a meditation room. It was high up and looked out over her neighborhood, clear across town.

"I feel at peace up here." She tells me in a whisper, her eyes staring out the window with a faraway look in them, a small smile is planted on her face. She turns to look at me out of the corner of her eye and the smile fades away, "I think the pizza guy should be here soon."

We leave the attic in a rush, I nearly trip and fall on my way down the steps, but I manage to keep up with her with all of the twists and turns. When we reach the main staircase the door bell rings, "Told you." She whispered with a grin that looked way to forced and then she hopped down the stairs to pull open the door.

She snatches the pizza box and the soda, shoves a small tip into his hand and slams the door shut. "Come on, Vega." She says before sauntering into the kitchen, her hips swaying. I wonder if she knows how attractive she is.

"Stop thinking like that Tori." I tell myself, shaking my head as I walk down the stairs. Jade is sitting on top of her kitchen counter, her bare feet propped up on the stool, a slice of pizza in her hand and she's taking a chug out of the soda bottle.

I hop up onto the counter next to her, placing my feet on the cushion on the stool in front of me. I grab a slice of pizza and take a bite, my eyes finding the TV hanging across from us is on TeenNick.

We eat and watch reruns of Zoey 101. "Pass me the soda." I demand, snatching the bottle from her hand when she picks it up. I take two long gulps and set it on the counter between us and take another bite out of my pizza.

After Zoey 101 was done Jade changed the channel in time to catch the beginning of Wanted. After awhile we were done with our pizza, but still watching Wanted, now we've pulled the booth chairs from the table they never use under the TV out into the middle of the kitchen so we could lay on them and watch the movie without missing anything, since Jade's TV downstairs is only good for movies from her DVD player and her video games.

"I think that'd be just about the coolest thing ever." Jade says randomly when she's watching Wesley curve a bullet.

"Curving a bullet?" I ask.

"No, getting to shoot at a hot chick." Jade snaps back sarcastically with a roll of her eyes and a smile on her face. I roll my eyes, too, and smack her shoulder. She raises an eyebrow at me in a 'really' look and I nod with a grin. She smacks my shoulder back and gives me a rough shove so I tumble off the couch. I'm glad there's a commercial break, because I haven't seen this movie before, and now I was busy pulling Jade down with me.

I grab Jade's arm and give it a none too gentle yank, pulling down onto the ground, where she ends up falling on top of me. "Ow!" she complains when I hear her knee slam into the ground whilst her elbow digs into my ribcage, she jumps up quickly, rolling the leg of her sweatpants up past her knee to examine the damage.

Its red really red and the hit sounded painful, "I'll get you ice." I whisper, scrambling to my feet and running to her freezer to grab a bag of peas. I sit beside her on the booth again, pick her knee up and gently place the ice on her knee. She hisses in pain, "I'm sorry Jade." I murmur. She shrugs and her attention turns back to the TV, so does mine, but my hands are still on her leg, one on the ice the other down by her ankle.

After the movie Jade and I push the booths back to where they belong and we head back down to her room, so I can get my bag and leave. It's nearly one am and I'm really tired so I'd decided to go home.

Jade was already crawling into her bed while I picked up my bag. I wanted terribly to stay, but I knew I needed to go home. I walked downstairs and got into my car, opened the garage door and backed my car out. Then I walked into her garage again, hit the door button and bolted out the garage door, jumping so I didn't trip the sensor and have it go back up.

Then I get into my car, restart it, pull out of her driveway and head home. At a red light I check my phone, that hasn't been checked since I left this morning to get Jade, and see I have a missed call from my mom and a text that says 'where are you?'.

I glance at the cross indicator. It still shows the person walking. I quickly reply that I was at Jade's and my phone was charging and that I'm on my way home before I toss the phone into the cup holder and turn back to the light.

It's red, but the counter for the cross walk is on 9. I wait slowly, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, the light turns green, I wait a minute and then I go. And then I see the lights, the car coming straight at the passenger's side of my car.

I'm not even a block from Jade's house, the car hits the back of my trunk and my car spins on the wet asphalt, my foot jerks away from the gas, my knee slamming into the wheel and causing the car to spin more and I try to find the break as the car spins faster until there's a loud crunch, glass shatters around me, my head smacks the steering wheel hard enough to make my vision spotted.

My car is stopped, my head is throbbing and my heart is in my throat. I undo my seat belt with shaking hands, shut off my car, somehow, and grab my phone, shoving the door open and tumbling out onto the ground, crawling to the curb. My hand shakes as I dial 9-1-1.

I explain what happened, give them my location and sit next to my car on the curb. I'm shaking like crazy, half aware that something hot is rolling down my temple. The car that hit me is stopped in the intersection. I can see the driver watching me, horrified. I'd bet all of my babysitting money that my face doesn't look any better.

"Tori!" someone is screaming, I turn my head and Jade is running down the sidewalk toward me in nothing more then her tank top and a pair of shorts. She is next to me in a blink, kneeling down and holding my face in her hands, her eyes roving over my face.

"You called me Tori…" I whisper, I realize I must sound completely loony. Jade's mouth tips up into a strange smirk, because it's half a smirk and half a sad smile, "do I look that bad?" Jade shakes her head no, brushing my hair back from my temple, tucking it behind my ear.

"I heard the accident, I swear I thought something blew up, I went to check on my garage door. Did you call an ambulance? What happened?" she demands in one breath. I tell her what happened and then tell her I called an ambulance, she looks relived, "I'm going to go see if there okay, you stay awake, sing a song so I can hear you and know you're alright."

"Okay…" I whisper, "I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long. Like a worn-out recording of a favorite song. So while she lay there sleepin', I read the paper in bed. And in the personal columns there was this letter I read."

Jade smirked at me before standing up and slowly making her way to the other car,

I keep singing, watching her stalk over to the car like a mother bear about to kill the thing that hurt her cubs, "'If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain, If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain, If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape, Then I'm the love that you've looked for write to me and escape'." She says something to the driver, and then looks at me, back to the driver. She's angry, and she stomps back over to me, nostrils flaring, hands in fists at her sides.

"I can hear the sirens." I blurt when she's stopped in front of me, she nods, sitting beside me and picking up my hand in hers. Her hand is soft, warm. She's watching me closely, her lips parted, "Am I going to be okay? My head hurts." I mumble.

"You'll be fine." Jade says, "I promise." She reaches up with her other hand and pushes my hair back away from my face again. When I see her hand the snow white skin is painted with my blood, I blink; blue and red flashes surround me. Chaos ensues.

Jade never lets go of my hand, she tells them what I told her because I'm so confused I don't think I can talk straight anymore. I recall hearing the words drunk and unhurt. She must've been talking about the other driver. And then I was put in the ambulance, Jade was still with me, holding my hand while the ambulance took off for the hospital.

"Don't you die on me, Vega." Jade laughs dryly once we're at the hospital, she's told she's got to wait somewhere else for me while they check me out. She leans over and kisses me softly, it makes my heart soar and my vision blur, "or I'll kill you." She whispers the threat in my ear, but she sounds near tears.

"I wont." I tell her, my eyelids fluttering between open and closed as I'm whisked away from her.


	12. Pizza with Cat

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Eleven: _ Pizza with Cat**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**A/N: Pardon my sudden Disney spam in all of these, but I really like the idea I have and I pray it works out the way I want it too! Enjoy the chapter. **

After a cat scan and a few more tests plus a big white bandage on my head they tell me I'm free to go home. My mom and dad are waiting for me in the waiting room, as well as a cop. Jade is nowhere in sight which makes me frown and disappointment wells in my chest.

"Your friend told me what you said happened, but I'm going to need you to tell me, again." The officer said with a nervous look at my father, like he doesn't want to bother him or me, but he has to.

"I was leaving my friend, Jade's, house and I stopped at a red light. The walking guy was still on the cross walk thing so I checked my phone 'cause it's a long light. I texted my mom back, and then put my phone in the cup holder and waited for the light to change. I wait for a minute before I start to go, and I'm nearly on the other side when I see the lights.

The car was coming fast and I wanted to speed up, but they'd already hit me. I hit the break as fast as I could, but the roads were wet and the car spun until it stopped and I just got out of the car as quick as I could. I guess Jade heard the crash when she was checking her garage door and she came running to check on me. I called an ambulance just before she got to where I was."

"Did you go check on the other driver?" he asks.

"No…I could hardly get out of my car, let alone walk to the other car. I was terrified." I told him honestly, "that's all that happened, can I go home now? I've got a long night ahead of me."

"Yes, that's all. I'll contact you later. Get better, kid." I nodded, my dad put his arm around my shoulder, and then we walked out to our car. It was about 4 am now, and I wasn't allowed to sleep until Monday night, because I had to stay up at least 24 hours, and then I had to go to school Monday.

When I crawled into the backseat I was shocked to find Jade curled up asleep back there, but her eyes popped open as soon as my door closed, "Tori!" she squeaked in a very un-new-Jade like manner, but a very my-old-best-friend manner, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me tight. I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her back, the disappointment fading from my chest replaced with happiness.

We stayed like this for five minutes, and I realized that my parents hadn't gotten into the car yet. We must've realized this around the same time because she pulled away and buckled in, turning her face forward.

_Tori, knock this crap off. You're letting yourself need her again. Stop. _My brain snaps, I look over at Jade, she's talking to my mom about something. She laughs and it sounds like soft music, it filters through my ears and I can't help but smile.

She turns to look at me; smiles back, her eyes shine with joy and a little bit of nervousness. My heart seems to be slowly gluing itself back together, like Jade is handing me small fragments and a bit of glue every time she smiles and I realize I do need her.

I reach across the backseat, smiling and talking with my dad about this woman he pulled over today, and I lace my fingers through Jade's and squeeze her hand. She gives my hand a nervous squeeze back and flashes me a brief smile.

I won't give up on her; I won't give up on us, because as pathetic as it sounds I need her. She doesn't just have the other half of my heart. She is the other half. And I need that half desperately.

When we reach the house I drop her hand and slip out of my car, Jade slides out of the other side and walks with me up to the front door, "We're going to go to bed, come get us if you can't get her to wake up or something's wrong, okay Jade?" my dad demands, Jade nods and waves goodnight to them, waiting by the stairs while I hug my parents and brush kisses across their cheeks before I join her at the staircase, watching them leave into their room before I take Jade's hand in mine again and we walk up the steps into my room.

She grabs my laptop the second we walk in while I grab a pair of shorts to wear. The sweat pants had gotten dirty while I sat on the curb waiting for the ambulance. I pulled off the sweatpants right in my room, not even hesitating and pulled on the shorts before crawling into my bed next to Jade.

Her attention is focused on the computer, she's clicking away and frowning and cursing under her breath. I'm too distracted to see what she's looking at, because I'm look at her. Her mouth is drawn into a straight flat line, her eyes narrowed into green slits at the screen.

She looks dangerous, scary, and breathtaking.

A smile lights up her face, triumphant and proud, sound leaks out of my speaks the Fox opening theme to movies, my eyes reach the screen and I'm sucked into the Simpson's Movie.

I slouch down on my bed to focus on the screen, Jade shuffles around on my bed and then she puts her arm around me and I lean against her while we watch the dumb, hilarious movie.

We finished the movie over an hour ago and now we're just sitting on my bed, staring up at my ceiling watching the lights glimmer over the stars that are swaying on the ceiling thanks to my fan.

Jade's fingers are laced through mine and our hands are laying between us, her thumb is rubbing circles on the back of my hand and she's humming softly to herself, she stops abruptly though. I hear her head turn and turn mine to face her.

She's watching me with a knowing look on her face, she rolls on her right arm, her left hand reaching toward me, she brushes my hair back away from my face, and her eyes look spaced out.

She runs her fingers along the edges of the bandage, a guilty look haunting her eyes, like it was her fault I'd been hurt. She lets out a long sigh, her breath fans across my face, "lets play a board game." She says, I nod slowly as she rolls away from me, releasing my hand.

Maybe we'll never be together, but maybe we can be friends. Just maybe.

Two hours later I'm curled up around my pillow while Jade laughs at my misery. She's got my computer propped up on her lap while a movie is playing across it. I've had cramps for an hour and a half and the pain is getting to me, my head is even starting to ache again.

Jade, being the lovely person she is, started laughing the moment the pain hit me. Telling me to suck it up and be a man. I had glared at her angrily on the verge of tears, simply because now I was a hormonal mess and she was being a bitch. I'd whacked her arm hard and then she'd told me to go curl in a ball on my bed and she'd find us a movie. It was nearly dawn now; we stay in my bed and watch movies until Monday.

Jade leaves around 5 Monday morning, when she goes home to get dressed. We part with smiles and a quick hug, promising to meet at the staircase with everyone else. Promising to try a friendship. The haunted look has vanished from her eyes; I'd never noticed it before today, until it wasn't there. Now I just couldn't be happier.

I grin and hop along to get dressed. I pull on a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, my black converse and a purple shirt. I let my hair go loose and natural and keep my makeup to a minimum because I still have a cut on my head, but the bandage gave me a headache so I don't want it on anymore.

My dad drives me to school, I get there fifteen minutes earlier then usual, and skip inside over to my locker to find my books for first period. Andre and Beck have already shown up, they flash me smiles and ask how I'm doing. I smile back and reply fantastic, telling them about the past two days.

"I'm glad you're both happy Tori." Beck tells me honestly, smiling a smile that truly reaches his eyes. Andre agrees, giving me a clap on the shoulder. I chuckle and we walk to the staircase to sit down. Cat shows up next, bouncing over to us, running headlong at me once she spots me.

Her arms go around my neck in a crushing hug as she looks me over, eyes shinning sadly when she spots the cut on my head. She kisses two of her fingers and presses them to my head before sitting down in front of Beck, next to me. Andre is behind me, beside Beck, and I've got Andre's laptop out so I can hear his new song.

We're listening to it for a third time, I'm assuring Andre that it's a good song, but he just won't listen to me. Beck assures him and he still won't listen, and Cat tries too, but he's just being too stupid.

I glance up when a door slams open by the asphalt café, Jade storms in, heading straight for her locker, her jaw set in anger, "Hey Jade." I call softly, her green eyes shift to me, pain and anger burning in their green depths and my stomach tangles in knots.

No.

"Fuck off, Vega." She hisses loud enough for the whole hallway to hear, slamming her locker closed to gain everyone else's attention before storming off. Everyone falls silent instantly, all eyes on me. Cat squeaks, her eyes widen in shock and she looks at me nervously. And then she tosses her arms around me again, hugging me. I lean against her, my eyes still staring where Jade had been.

"What the hell happened?" Beck is the first to break the silence and tears burst from my eyes and I burry my face in Cat's shoulder as the eyes turn away from me and a silent murmur starts through the school until the sound of peoples other conversation hits my ears. _Why did that hurt so much? _

"We'll see you guys in Sikowitz's class." I hear Cat say. She pulls the laptop from my lap, hands it to Andre and pulls me to my feet. I keep my head down, my hair falling like a curtain around my face.

I'm not aware where Cat is taking me until we're both sitting on the floor in the janitors closet. She pulls me into a hug and I cry against her shoulder until no more tears will come.

Three words undo all of the hope that Jade put into me in the past two days. I pull away from Cat and run my hand across my face, leaning against the wall. Cat watches me nervously, probably wondering how long it will be until I break.

"What did I do?" I whisper.

"Nothing. You didn't do a single thing wrong." Cat assures me in a confident, clear voice, "Jade let you in too far and she can't handle it. It's not you, its her." She reaches out and gives my hand a soft squeeze. I burst into tears again for another ten minutes.

When I stop again I chuckle nervously, looking up at Cat, "You know, I wouldn't be crying this much if it wasn't that time of the month." She laughs softly, giving me a tiny smile, "Thank you Cat, I mean it. You're a good friend."

"I know." She teases, still smiling, "I hate seeing you cry Tori, and you don't deserve it. She's just being a bitch, so why don't you give her a taste of her own medicine? She doesn't want you close, so act like you don't want her close."

"I can do that…" I whisper softly, "just not, not right now. I can't just…move onto someone. I'd feel like an asshole."

"I understand, Tori. But for now, you've got me. I'll try to help you stay together and get better, okay?" she asks, smiling sweetly, a sincere tone to her voice. I can't help but smile back, "we can hang out after school and stuff, and do homework."

"What about your Beck time?" I tease, her cheeks turn rosy pink and she looks away, I snicker.

"He can wait…" she murmurs softly, and I burst into uncontrollable laughter at how shy she's suddenly gotten. She fakes offence and pouts. I take deep breaths to try and calm myself down, my arms clutching my stomach.

We stand up, she gives me one last hug, and we go our separate ways. I'm yelled at for being tardy and assigned detention. I take it without a word and drop into my chair in the back of the room, pulling my phone out to ask Cat if she got a detention too. She says yes and guilt eats away at my stomach. Poor Cat.

I'm sorry. I text back. She tells me not to worry about it, and to put my phone away before I get another detention. I smile and tuck my phone into my pocket again. I slump down in my desk, my feet propping up on the basket under the desk in front of me.

I tap my pencil absently, watching the clock hands tick by. When the bell rang I pretty much flung myself out of my desk and ran out the door to my next class, vocal training. Our teacher wasn't there five minutes into class, and now all of us were going crazy doing whatever we wanted.

I was sitting near the back with Robbie, who was holding an eerily silent Rex, and singing softly so that just he and I could hear me. A few people around us might have heard bits of the words I was saying to myself, but who knows.

After the bell rang Robbie and I walked together to class, he sat on one side of the room, I sat on the other. Throughout the whole class he kept shooting me these nervous glances. I felt like he, too, was checking to make sure I wouldn't break.

Someone must've told him what happened, because he didn't ask questions, just simply told me 'I'm sorry'. I ignored him, laughed it off, biting my cheek hard to keep from crying or something else stupid.

Now, though, he was getting on my nerves. When he looked at me again my mouth pulled into a scowl and I narrowed my eyes at him. He looked startled. I'd pulled off what I was trying to, Jade's evil look. I knew it well. And apparently I was good at replicating it.

Sikowitz's class came too soon, dread slammed into my chest as I forced my feet to move forward. I opened the door to the class and felt like everyone was staring at me. Because they were.

I crossed the room and sat down next to Cat; she reached over and hugged me briefly, "feeling okay? I was wondering if you wanted to go get pizza after school?" she asked, eyes flickered away from me, it was nearly a relief.

"I'm okay. It's not like someone died or something." I laughed, "I really would love it if people could quit staring at me." Eyes disappeared all together and conversations, that had probably ended when I walked in, started up again.

"So, pizza? Beck and Andre are busy and I don't want to invite Robbie since Rex will be with him…" she shuddered, her eyes falling to her feet before pulling back up to my face, "How about it?"

"Sure thing. I'll be going home with Trina tonight, but I'll get a ride over to the pizza place from my dad." She grins and then launches into a story about her brother. I listen as closely as I can. Apparently her brother had gone out to the movies and come back home with a raccoon last night.

The class room door opened again and everyone fell silent, much like they had when I walked in. I didn't bother turning around, I already knew it was Jade. I stayed facing forward, my legs crossed one over the other.

She must've glared them all to look away from her, because the eyes were back on me. Where is Sikowitz? He must've heard my thought, he slammed the door open and tossed his bag away from him, "we're doing a play!" he announced, "It is mandatory to be in, you will have no choice. You will audition and be assigned a role by me."

"What play?" Cat asked happily, twirling her hair around her finger and giggling joyfully, her Cat-act turned on full blast.

"Good question, Cat, I will pull a name from this hat and they will choose whatever movie they want to make into a twisted version of the play. For instance, in Cinderella maybe she'll be a zombie, or perhaps Cinderella will turn into Cinderedward. The person whose name I pull will help with that, and that will be there grade on the play." I rolled my eyes at his antics. Of course he would go do something crazy like that, "so the name is…" he pulls the name out, reads it and frowns, "Cat Valentine."

The class fearfully watches Cat, who is chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Beauty and the Beast!" she giggles happily. There is a single, group groan at Cat's choice and I try to keep myself from groaning along with them.

"Very well then, you write down the ideas you have for changing the play and share them with me tomorrow. Now we will discuss angry scenes. I will need Tori and Beck to come up here, let's go."

I toss my bag aside and walk up onto the stage with Beck; we both stare at Sikowitz, waiting for an explanation. He sits down in my seat and stares at us. I raise an eyebrow in his direction, "well…?"

"Scream at each other." He says simply.

"About what?"

"She stole your girlfriend." Sikowitz blurts randomly.

"Okay…" Beck turns to me, raising an eyebrow and then runs a hand over his face, "How could you?" his voice has an angry growl to it. I'm almost shocked, but I cover it up with anger.

"I love her." I reply, a growl in my voice too.

"She was my girlfriend!" he yells, "I thought you were my friend, how could you do this to me!"

"I'm sorry!" I yell back, "I'm sorry she picked me, but it's not my fault!"

And then I can't help it, I burst into laughter, and so does Beck, followed by the whole class minus Sikowitz and Jade. He asks us to take our seats so we do, but Sikowitz refuses to get up from my chair so once more I take a seat next to the blonde boy, because the only other choice is beside Jade.

We discuss why Beck and I started laughing; because we don't believe any of this could actually happen, or because we weren't taking the lesson seriously. I was betting it was because Beck and I both realized that it would never happen, because I mean, his girl friend was mine first.

Of their own accord my eyes find Jade. She's looking at her fingers, picking the polish off of her nails; her bottom lip is between her teeth. Her hair is falling in front of her face like a curtain; the only thing I can see is her mouth.

She's slumped over, leaning on her left, like her right side is sore. I do a quick scan of the rest of her. A pair of black jeans, her wallet with the chain hooked onto her front belt loops, the leather wallet tucked in her back. Her shirt is baggy with long sleeves and she had the same makeup on from last night.

I frown when she shifts to glare at me, she winces when she turns too far, but she seems to shove it away long enough to growl at me. I stare still, watching her closely. Something is wrong with her, it has to be. She was fine this morning.

"Quit staring, Vega." She snaps.

"Don't flatter yourself, West." I reply with sarcasm dripping off of my lips, "I was looking at the kid next to you." The kid in the row beside her sits up slightly and moves his chair out of Jade's swinging range as her nostrils flare in anger before she huffs and snaps her attention forward.

Well okay then, bitch.

At lunch I sit with Beck, Cat, Andre and Robbie. Cat and Beck are unusually open about their flirting now and normally when I'm in a bad mood I find couple-y couples disgusting but I just can't help but smile at them.

Of course Jade is glaring at them both from three tables away while she stabs viciously at her salad; I roll my eyes at her and turn to my own salad, inhaling it quickly because I'm so hungry.

"So Cat, what ideas do you have for Beauty and the Beast?"

"I can't tell you." She says with a secretive grin, her pink pen is flying across her paper but she's leaning over it so nobody can read it. I watch her suspiciously; this rubs me in a strange way.

The bell rings to go to our next class, I hastily finished my salad before sprinting to my class, flopping down into my desk and pulling out my homework. I don't pay attention to the lesson, my mind intent on getting through the day, the pizza parlor at home and getting home to listen to music and block out the world.

After school I crawled in Trina's car, rode home, crawled in my dad's car and met Cat at a pizza place 20 minutes from my school. She still had her notebook with her and was scribbling furiously in it where she sat in the back corner.

I walked straight over to her and slid into the booth beside her, "hey Cat." I greeted, she looked up and flashed me a smile. I smiled back and set my phone down on the table she closed her notebook and put it into her backpack.

"So, how are you feeling?" she sits up more, tucking her foot under herself, "I ordered a pepperoni pizza and mountain dew for you to drink. I got water."

"Thanks Cat. I'm feeling okay. I mean I'm a little angry and hurt still, but I know I didn't cause or deserve Jade's bitchy ass attitude so she'll just have to get over herself." A waitress zooms by and deposits our drinks at the table.

"Good for you." Cat grins at me.

"So, how are you and Beck?" her cheeks turn a pretty rosy color and she looks down at her fingers before mumbling a nearly silent 'good'. Then the pizza is dropped off and she hastily stuffs her face.

**A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews I've gotten. I usually try to reply to them but I've been writing these chapters wickedly fast and not pausing to check my reviews until I'm on my phone going to bed or at school. I read each and everyone, thank you for the alerts and favorites as well. I really appreciate them and they make my day. I'm glad you guys like the story! **


	13. The Change

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Twelve: _The Change **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

"Alright students, quiet down!" Sikowitz's voice boomed over our excited chatter. My mouth snapped shut instantly and I turned away from Andre to face Sikowitz, and various other teachers from classes I both did and didn't have, who were standing at the front of the Black Box Theater, "Now, as I mentioned about us doing a play that Cat is writing-." Groans from students drown out his next words, "end of year project."

"What?" someone yells from behind me, I'm not sure who it was since there are about four classes in here as well as my own class.

Annoyance flashes across Sikowitz's face as he rubs his hands together, "you will all be working on this play- that will now be a movie- and be graded as a big end of the year projects in your classes. Each of you, whether you are actors, writers, directors, set designers, singers or make up artists, in each class you have you will contribute something to this movie, the end result will be a huge end of year grade. Now Cat would you like to announce the big change to the movie?"

A grin curls on Cat's lips and she pops up out of her seat and bounces on stage, the skirt of her dress flying up dangerously high with her bounces, taking command of the audience as soon as she opens her mouth, "The beast, will be a girl." A quiet murmur shoots through the crowd, "and so will the beauty." Silence, long and nervous, and then finally a slow clap. Cat's had a good plan and a collective sigh of relief circles the room.

Most of us feared nudity, rainbows or crappy kid's songs. But Cat has picked something good, something age appropriate. But now I realize that she's grinning at me, smiling _pointedly_ at me. Dread fills me, she did not intend for me to play the beauty or the beast did she? Something about her grin tells me that's _exactly_ what she's planning, and she's going to be helping with casting, which is all controlled by the students and Cat can win almost anybody over with her smile and charm. I'm doomed.

Cat's gaze shifts across the room, Jade is in that general direction. Shit. Cat looks back at me and I shake my head quickly, no, no, _no_! She just shrugs and sits back down in her chair, two rows ahead of me so all I can do is glare at the back of her pretty red head. Sikowitz announces we will audition for whatever role we want, but the casters can stick us in whatever role they seem fit.

_Oh well, it's just a grade, and just a class. It'll be okay_. I must repeat it in my head 50 times, I still don't believe it.

We were asked to audition now, starting with kids who were ready and given time for those to practice who hadn't right away. Jade went first and then stormed out after she was done, only stopping to scoop her bag off of the floor. I went about midway through and went home to start on my homework.

I had stacks of homework to do and it was dark by the time I was done, I hadn't even noticed the time go by and that had been the entire point. If I realized the time went by I'd start counting down the moments of the casting list being posted tonight or tomorrow morning.

After a quick shower to relax my muscles, sore from being hunched over my desk working on my homework, I dressed and wandered downstairs where my mom had made dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and breadsticks. I grabbed a glass, filled it with tea, and took my usual spot at the dinner table beside Trina's empty seat. Mom and dad were talking about something, but I tuned them out, instead focusing on the food I was eating.

"_Tori_!" Trina's screech made me almost spit my tea across the table and sent mom into fit, coughing and spluttering water across the table. Trina stomped angrily down the stairs, hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out, face red, "You're stupid friend Cat posted the cast list on theSlap but blocked me and I can't see what part I am!"

My heart raced and I ran past Trina to the couch, diving across it to retrieve my laptop. I typed in a rush, trying to get to the set list. The page was taking forever to load, my speed had silenced Trina and now she and my parents were standing behind me, watching the page, Trina was leaning dangerously over the couch.

"I better be Belle." Trina muttered, _you won't be._ My brain said, my eyes trained on the screen as the list slowly loaded, I knew my doom but it wouldn't be real until my name was on that screen.

Beast….Jade West.

Belle…..Tori Vega.

"No way!" Trina snapped angrily, snatching my laptop from me, "I'm the freaking wardrobe!" she screeched. Somehow, even though I knew what Cat was going to do, I didn't have to accept it, until it was on the screen in front of me, taunting me.

"I'm going to kill Cat." I don't even think about it before I say it, it just slips out. Mom looks at me like I'm crazy, "I'm going to bed." And then I sprint up stairs after snatching my laptop from Trina.

I bury myself under the sheets and squeeze my eyes closed. Jade is going to be so angry, because I doubt Sikowitz is going to let Cat change the cast list now, no matter how big of a fit Jade throws, and me throwing a fit wouldn't help either so I calmly lay in bed, panicking on the inside. I have to work with Jade on this. Closely with Jade on this. My character would be in love with Jade's in this. My character will be kissing Jade's.

"I'm fucked." I mutter to my ceiling, a sigh escapes me and my eyes are glued to the stars glittering on my ceiling. I was always going to love Jade, but she won't ever be with me again. If Cat and Beck and everyone would just stop shoving me into her I'd be able to at least start letting that little part of me that loves her heal so that I can move on and find someone else, maybe.

A week had passed since we'd been handed out scripts after our roles were assigned. The play Cat wrote, with the help of some people in the script writing class-Jade, Beck, Eli and Sinjin, was actually really good and I was almost excited to work on it.

Jade had been pretty decent about this whole thing, even though she constantly ignored me, she hadn't screamed at Cat, and Cat also said Jade had been a huge help in writing the play.

I'd been busy learning my lines, my vocals and painting the set with Robbie, Sinjin, and the other band of set design kids-even if it wasn't one of my classes I needed something to do to keep my busy.

Andre and a few of his friends from his music class helped write new songs and change a few of the songs from Disney to high school, but most of them remained the same. Eli, Jade, Beck and I all worked on helping Cat design our costumes, even though Jade ignored me, and today I was supposed to be helping Sinjin with more of the set.

I was painting a wooden chair a darker color, "Tori!" Cat came screaming, make-up brush in her hand, brown eyes panicked, "Tori!" she slammed into me nervously ducking behind me, "Jade-." She started to pant, trying to catch her breath.

The makeup studio was on the other side of the school, and she'd probably run the whole way here, the poor thing, "Cat, calm down. _Cat!_" she finally looked me in the eye and started breathing, "What happened?"

"Jade…she has this…"

"_Cat!_" Jade's voice growled from behind me, I nearly screamed, she was literally right behind me, I could feel her a few feet away from me. Like I always could.

"She has a huge bruise on her…." Cat started before Jade cut her off.

"Cat! You don't need to be bugging Tori with this! I told you I tripped over one of Tyler's stupid toys and fell down the stairs. It's not a big deal." I wasn't facing Jade to be able to tell if she was lying or not, but I didn't really think she was, and then again she was an actress.

"Come on, Cat. It's just a bruise. Why are you so worked up?" I asked, kneeling in front of her where she was sprawled out on the ground still trying to catch her breath from running all the way here.

"I don't know…I guess…I just…I don't know." She shook her head, trying to clear away something that had her nearly in tears. I reached out and pushed her hair away from her face, "I just…I don't deal well with people being hurt. I'm sorry Tori."

"Its okay Cat. Come on, let me help you up and we'll go get you some water." I stood and held out my hand, pulling Cat to her feet trying to shake away the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Cat wasn't over reacting.

"I need to pee." Cat mumbled when we were standing at the vending machine behind some girl that had been working on the set design with me, I think her name was Madison. Not that it mattered.

"Then go. I'll get you water." I told her, stepping up to the vending machine with Jade as Cat slowly walked toward the bathroom. The hallways were empty now, "How bad is the bruise?" I asked, not looking at Jade.

I pushed the button for lemon flavored water and then the button for regular twice, "It's not that bad, I mean it looks pretty gruesome, but it's really not that bad."

"You repeated yourself, liar." I snapped, turning to face her as my arms automatically crossed over my chest and I fixed my eyes on hers, "let me see it."

Her eyes turned to slits and her face was a calm mask of rage, a contradiction I know. I cocked an eyebrow at her and met the glare with a calm expression. She scowled as she did it, but she carefully rolled her shirt up to reveal the bruise.

It was a green and blue bruise, yellow around the edges and covered nearly her whole rib cage, "did you break a rib?" I asked, my hand reaching out so my fingers gently felt down her ribs. They didn't _feel _broken, but I wasn't a professional.

"No, I just banged them up pretty good, you know how long my staircase is. Besides, even if they were nothing a doctor could do about them." She stated dryly. I nodded and pulled my hand back away as she pulled her shirt down, "I forgot it was there, I should have warned her, I just wasn't thinking." I bent down and grabbed the three bottles of water, handing the lemon one to Jade, and scooped the change from the machine and dumped it into my pocket.

"Yeah, I hope she feels better." I murmur as an awkward silence descends between us, the air feeling thick, I scratch my head and bite my lip, "I should go finish the set, give this to Cat." I hand Jade one of the two plain bottles and start to walk away.

"Thanks for the water, Vega." Jade calls after me, I wave over my shoulder in a dismissive manner as I walk back to the Black Box, only then realizing I automatically bought Jade her favorite flavor of water. I shook my head and pushed the door to the Black Box open. Inside it's quiet, people work in silence painting or build. The sound of the hammer and a nail gun are the only things I hear.

I walk to the chair and sit down in front of it, slowly painting in a repetitive motion. Up, down, up, down, up, down. Why had Cat come running like that? Why had Jade chased her? Why did Cat look so frightened? Could it have just been that Cat is frightened of seeing people hurt? Or was there something they both weren't telling me?

"Tori!" I pick my head up slowly and look in the direction of Sinjin's voice, "can you go help Eli with the lighting?" I nod and push to my feet absently, climbing up the back steps to the catwalk, taking a quick gulp of my bottle before stepping up to the light controls.

After helping with the lights I got to math- our schedules have been rearranged to have our first four classes be the classes we're tied to the play with. For me its Sikowitz, Vocal Class, Theater, and Dance in that order. Then I have math, history and English three. Thankfully I don't have a science class this year.

We all have math together, I sit behind Jade and between Cat and Andre while Beck sits next to Jade in front of Cat and Robbie sits next to Jade in front of Andre. We're silent while we work on our math. Up front our teacher is reading and paying zero attention to us.

After math we had lunch, and today Jade sat with us, between Andre and me. Cat was to my left next to Beck and Robbie was between Beck and Andre. Rex was absent again, much to everyone's pleasure.

The chatter at the table was comfortable, for the first time since their breakup, everyone was laughing, joking at everyone else's expense. There was no tense air around the table, no fighting, and no resentment.

Cat and Beck were all cuddly together, Beck's arm slung around her shoulder why she had her head resting on his chest as she joked with Jade. People around us found this strange, but seemed to be even more drawn to watching our table when Jade cracked a joke about someone and the pair of us burst into laughter, because Jade threw her arm around my shoulder and laughed into my shoulder.

Afterwards she'd reeled back like she's been burned, I heard her mutter bruise, so I guess maybe she'd hurt it somehow. I grabbed her shoulder and she looked at me, I didn't need to voice my question and she gave a quick nod. She wasn't hurt.

I went back to eating my burrito.

During English Jade, Cat and I worked on our textbook work together, silently giggling at jokes Cat kept cracking in the back of the room much to our teacher's annoyance. But none of us seemed to care.

After English we all go to finish setting up the stage and separate. We start filming tonight. To eliminate the need for a lot of special effects the characters of Chip and Mrs. Potts and everyone else are going to be changed in their own ways-not into cups and pots or brooms but into servants who can't talk to anyone but the other servants.

They can't talk to or console the Beast, or persuade anybody who happens upon the castle to fall for the monster that the Beast is. Over all I love the concept of the play, but nerves still strike me at the thought of Jade and I having to kiss.

It's not like we haven't before, but it's always been a private thing. It's acting, but will people see more into it?

"Tori!" Cat screeched, flying around the corner. I was sitting in a chair, Christian was finishing my makeup, both of us jerked involuntarily as she teetered on her feet- nearly falling over- her hand clutching her chest, "Jade's not here and she wont answer her phone! It's been 3 hours and her phone just keeps ringing!"

"Calm down, Cat." Jade's sarcastic voice spits as her boots stomp into view, "I'm here. I can't talk and drive. Don't wanna crash like Vega." She gives me an over done wink and flops into her chair so Cat can work on her makeup.

"Wasn't my fault, West." I snap back instantly, Jade lifts a pierced eyebrow at me and smiles.

"Who drives for three hours!" Cat screams, stomping over to Jade in a childish manner, pulling out her makeup kit to work on Jade. We're doing the prologue last since we want to get the parts with Jade in her 'Beast' form out of the way as fast as possible.

Jade's beast form isn't really too wolfy, she's wearing contacts and she has a lot of makeup that gives her face an evil, ugly, deadly look. She's got fake teeth that she's practiced singing in, pointed and dangerous like dogs teeth. The finished project is shocking.

We're not filming in order, because like I said we wanted Jade's makeup out of the way. We were starting with me walking up to the castle, to look for my brother- played by Eli. My hair is tied back in a low pony tail and I'm in a blue dress that is a little shorter then Belle's in the real movie.

We've even got a real horse for me to use for this part, a large white mare with a black spot on her nose. She's really pretty and calm and thankfully not frightened by the cameras, lights or fake snow.

We only have to do the scene two times before were done and then we film me wandering through the house, passing Lumiere and Cogsworth who are standing silent in the shadows as I walk up the stairs, calling for my brother Paul.

The kid playing Lumiere- the guy who I told Jade I was staring at- sneezes twice and I trip going up the stairs once so we do four takes of this part and then change the set so I'm upstairs, looking for my brother.

Outside I know people are preparing the spiral staircase in the asphalt café for me to find my brother locked in the dungeon. That scene takes three takes as well, due to me flubbing a few lines out of nerves and then the first scene with Jade and I starts.

I truly applaud the light crew, because they manage to make it look like were inside standing in a beam of light, "Step into the light." I whisper. I have yet to see Jade's full makeup, so when she steps into the beam of light the gasp is not faked.

She looks truly frightening, her makeup paired with the dark outfit- a dress that is deep blue and a blue cloak with red lining and a hood over her head. She would give me nightmares had I not known this was a movie- hell it still might.

I stumble back, eyes wide with real shock, "please, spare my brother. I will take his place! He has a wife and children!" I plead, her eyebrow arches up making her look even more horrifying if it was possible, I fell to my knees, bowing my head, "please."

"Fine." She growls, stepping around me and ripping the door open, "Vlad, take him back to the town!" she 'throws' him into Vlad- played by Andre- who drags him away while I sob into my hands.

"You didn't let me say goodbye!" I yell, chasing after Paul, screaming his name. She catches me around the waist, hauling me off of my feet, "be quiet!" she snarls. Trina's character Wanda- or the wardrobe- appears.

"Take her to her room. You can rest for awhile and then come to dinner, or starve." Jade throws the ends of her cloak over her and storms down the stairs. We follow and the scene ends.

"Great job!" Cat squeals, "I loved it! Especially you're reaction Tori!" she throws an arm around Jade and I each, pulling us into a crushing hug. We both grunted and our heads smacked against Cat's rather hard head.

"Okay Cat, off. You're killing us." Jade wheezed, "I've got to get this gunk off of me and get home. It's late; we'll be back tomorrow early so we can work through the weekend." Jade pushes her and Cat releases us.

Jade and I walk back into the makeup room alone while the others work on cleaning up. Each of us goes behind changing screens and then we scrub the makeup off her face. I help Jade remove her teeth and undo her hair and then we head out together.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Vega." Jade says, slipping into her car. I squeeze between her car and Trina's and crawl into the drivers seat. Trina's car is a mess, clothes and shoes litter the floor. I had to throw all of her shoes into the backseat before I could even safely drive.

I start the car, turn on my lights and switch on a better radio station, beside me Jade's car remains off but she's bent sideways, glaring at the ignition and I could see her shoulder rolling as she turns the key.

She throws her hands up in triumph when her car starts; she turns to face me a huge grin planted on her face. I laugh, and put the car in reverse after clicking my seatbelt into place. Jade pulls out behind me and speeds off to the right while I go left.

Once I get home I crawl into the shower, washing the left over makeup and the lingering stench of sweat from the long day from my skin. I stay under the spray of warm water for longer then necessary, just to enjoy it.

To me everything has seemed to fly by, and this is just a nice way to calm down, stop time-even if it's just me delaying my departure into dreamland. Once I'm completely prune handed, I shut the water off, step out and wrap in a big fluffy towel.

I dry my hair at a leisurely pace with the hair dryer Trina thankfully left in the bathroom, afterwards I go into my room, towel my skin dry and pull on the first shirt I find. Amber and French vanilla drown my senses as my head pops through the collar and the shirt settles against my skin.

Jade's shirt.

I gather the material in my hand and pull it up to my nose, inhaling deeply. It's as if she's here with me, hugging me. I slip into bed with a smile on my face, arm hooked around my pillow, face tucked so I can still smell the shirt.

That night, I dream of Jade. It's a simple dream, we're sitting on a set of swings, and I'm pushing myself back and forth on the toe of my shoe while Jade swings high in the sky with a grin on her face, long black hair flying behind her. I know it's a dream, only because her hair is black, and because she tells me she loves me as we walk up a hill, hand in hand to watch the sunset.

**Shorter then usual, but I've been sick so I'm out energy to add more. Edited to the best of my ability. Hope you guys like it! Sorry if it feels a little rushed, but I figured talking about the beginning of production of it would be long and filler-ish and I don't do filler well. Review and let me know what you think! :)  
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	14. What's Wrong With Love?

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Thirteen: _ What's Wrong With Love? **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**Fair Warning: this chapter has some more cursing then normal and some violence. I don't think there is enough to warrant an M rating though, so read at your own discretion. I hope you guys like it.**

Filming this movie was becoming an everyday thing. During school we'd film, after school we'd film and I wouldn't get home until 11 or so. The only time we didn't film during the week was Sunday's, which were the days I dedicated to doing my homework.

Our teachers were being really nice and making all assignments due Monday's so we'd have time to get them all done, and when we were in class we were learning things still, but not being forced to rush learn and cram homework in.

Today was a Saturday, and I wasn't quite ready to get up and get in the car yet, instead I was stretched out across the couch watching something on Cartoon Network, but the commercial break seemed endless and I pretty much forgot what it was I was actually watching.

"Tori! Answer your phone!" my mom's voice called down the stairs. I shook my head and chased the numb blank feeling away my hand searching the couch for my phone. I hit accept and laid it down on my ear tucking my hand back under my head.

"Hello?"

"Hey Vega, I'm sorry to call and ask you for a favor, but my truck is in the shop and I've got no other ride to the set, Cat's mom already dropped her off and Beck had to pick up Robbie, and Andre isn't even showing up to-." She sounded extremely stressed out and annoyed.

"Jade, stop rambling." I cut her off, "I'll give you a ride, and I'll swing by in 10 minutes?"

"Thanks, Vega." I rolled my eyes.

"Anytime, Jade." I pointedly use her first name, she growled into the phone in a playful manner, and I could practically see her smacking herself, "see you in 10 minutes." I hit end before she could reply just sat there for a few minutes.

"Tori!" my mom screamed again, "you're going to be late! Get me gas!"

"Okay! I'm going to be picking Jade up and taking her home!" I yell back, finally swinging my legs off of the couch, my feet planting themselves on the floor for a few seconds before I stand up, grab my HA sweater, the car keys, and my wallet, "bye!"

"Bye hun! Tell Jade I miss her around the house!" my mom called after me as loud as possible.

"Whatever!" I called back; it was followed by her saying my name warningly. I shrug my jacket on and zip it up. There's a bit of a cool breeze blowing through, it's mid-October now, and it's getting colder and colder.

I text Jade that I'm getting gas before I get her, set my phone and wallet in the cup holder, start the car and head to the nearest gas station. 30 bucks of gas later and I was on my way to Jade's.

She was outside when I pulled up and I'd hardly stopped the car before she pulled the door open and dropped into the car, "Hey Vega." She greeted. She was dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a baggy shirt. Her hair was tied up in a pony tail near the back of her head.

"Hey West." I retorted, pulling into her driveway and backing out to go back the other way. She reached forward and turned on the radio, her eyes locked on the car in front of us, a blank expression on her face, "you alright?"

"I'm fine." She replied, crossing one leg over the other and turning to look at me, "just drive Vega, we don't need you crashing this car." I frown but turn my eyes back to the road to watching my speed and the slow traffic, the only sounds I heard were the radio and the horns of other cars.

We were heading to an old manor a friend of Cat's mom owned that they offered to let us use for the movie, so we didn't have to worry about making a set for the dance scene. Cat's at our car the second we pull in, yanking us toward the makeup area, telling us which scenes we'll be doing. I'm only half listening to the conversation while she tugs me into the room and Ellie, the girl Cat forced to do my hair and makeup, pushes me into a chair and attacks me with her tools. Cat drags Jade away from me into another room.

When I'm shoved into a yellow dress I realize we're going to be filming the dance scene, which I suppose I would have known if I'd bothered to listen to Cat at all. Ellie helps me walk to the stair case I'm supposed to use to walk down and adjusts the dress and fixes bits of my hair.

The costume class has made a nearly exact replica of the dress from Beauty and the Beast. It's large, heavy and a bit tight near the top but its fun to walk around in; the skirts spin around me, dancing across my legs with just a short twist of my hips.

"Here, gloves." Ellie informs me, shoving a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear while she hands me the gloves and tends to something near the bottom of the dress. My hair has some how been put up like Belle's, though I'm not sure how, and thick waves roll down my back and beside my neck.

"Okay! Places everyone!" Cat called from below. Ellie flashed a smile and squeezed my shoulders, whispering soft 'good luck' before she scurried away. I let out a long breath, ringing my hands together. The gloves were making my hands feel hot and sweaty; the stage lights weren't helping with my problem either, they beat down on me with too much heat.

The music started, my feet found the first step and I started making my way down the stairs. I was holding the banister with one hand and the skirts of my dress with the other, taking the steps one at a time.

Jade was making her way down, too, in a dark blue dress that seemed to fade into black near the bottom. Her hair was swept back from her face, held on the sides of her head by two rose shaped clips. Her face was painted in that horrifying makeup, but her eyes were shinning like little mini jades, cut in perfect circles and inset in her eyes like jewelry.

We met in the middle of the staircase, she offered her glove clad arm, and I hooked mine through it with a brief smile at her, and then focused on walking down the steps without tripping and running the whole scene. When we reached the bottom the cameras were off and people went rushing off to check the recording in case we had to do it again.

When it was decided we didn't, the cameras were set up and Jade and I took our places at the foot of the stairs, arm in arm, waiting for the music to start up. We cut out the dinner scene and decided to go straight into the dance scene to save us time and work.

When the music started I placed one of my hands in one of Jade's and pulled her other hand around my back, placing it near my hip, while she faked an uncomfortable gulp before, putting my hand on her bare shoulder. Her skin was cold through my glove.

I smiled at her, which caused the corner of her mouth to tilt up into a smile as she took the first step and we fell into a well practiced, flowing dance. I let my eyes fall closed at times as we glided across the floor.

Her hand on my back started out tense, and then slowly relaxed and she pulled me just a bit closer, I leaned in, resting my head on her shoulder as we slowly moved about the floor. I could practically feel the smile on her face, and the smile on my face was hurting, but I couldn't care less.

"Ready, Vega?" she murmured in my ear low enough so I could barely hear it, I picked my head up as she released my waist, raised her hand and spun me gracefully around beneath it. The feeling of the skirts of my dress brushing against my legs and sending shivers up my body as she pulled me back against her, when the song changed to something deeper, if not darker, quicker, closer.

Andre did a great job arranging the music, and now Jade and I to do a great job dancing to it. We were acting as if this was live, we were meant for the stage, we could do this. We'd practiced over and over. We could do this in one shot. I hoped.

Our moves are faster paced, with more precision, our eyes are locked, one hand on her shoulder, the other grasped firmly in hers. Front, back, swing away, back together, front, back, around behind, my back to her front, her arm around my hip while our clasped hands pointed in front of us. Our bodies pressed together.

Legs flying back and forth, the skirts of my dress are raised up short enough that my feet are my own, and I won't trip up, it's taken a lot of practicing for me to get this good. But now, in Jade's arms, I feel like I can do anything.

She flings me away, releasing my hand so I spin on my toes over and over across the room, she slinks over to me like a lioness hunting her prey and pulls me against her before she dips me slowly, back, her chin hovering over my chest, green eyes still locked with mine as my hair brushes the ground, one of my legs hooks around her and she swings me while I'm dipped, the only thing holding me up being my leg and her arm loosely holding my hip as my fingers graze the ground, she pulls me up right and we lock gazes. My chest heaves against hers and her hot breath fans across my face.

"And cut!" Cat yells over the music. Jade takes a step back, her chest heaving as well as mine. We're watching each other closely and the places where her skin had been on mine are growing cold and my heart aches to be in her arms again. "Good job you guys! We don't even have to re-shoot it! I'm so proud of you guys." We're jerked into a neck breaking hug, her arms around are neck, and now our faces are inches from each other.

"Can we see it?" Jade asks, Cat shakes her head no and shoves us to go get changed. We're filming the lastfew scenes, and an excited murmur is going through all of us, and I know everyone I silently praying we only have to do it once.

But it actually takes four times to film Beck and Jade's fight scene, two too shoot me riding up and interrupting Beck and Jade's near death scene and Beck 'stabbing' her while we have our moment on the balcony, and now I'm waiting kneeling in a puddle so they can fix Jade's makeup.

After I'd pulled her up onto the roof, the rain had been so hard her makeup had started smudging, so they had to completely redo it. Andre and I were sitting around laughing and talking about what we were going to do later to pass the time until he got a phone call and had to run off, but it was just perfect timing because Jade returned, makeup back in place, and took her spot laying before me.

The rain started up, lighter this time, since we were both already soaked it didn't matter how heavy it was, and I gently ran a hand through her hair and then traced the edges of her face.

Her head turned, and her eyelids fluttered open slowly, as if it was a chore and she smiled slightly, "you came back…" her voice was a raspy whisper that had goose bumps racing across my body.

A sad smile broke out across my face, "Of course I came back, I couldn't just let them do that to you." My eyes flutter down to the cut in her side, it looks to real, my smile falters and tears burn in my eyes, "This is all my fault, I'm so sorry. If I'd gotten here sooner…"

"Maybe, just maybe, it's better this way." Jade's eyes seem to be struggling to stay open, her voice is coming out in pants and her chest is heaving. She is a really good actor.

"Don't you dare say that." I stammer out, my voice weak but harsh, "You'll be fine, you just need some patch work." I force a laugh, Jade coughs, frown nervously. My hands are flying around her, unsure where I should have them. I finally take her face in my hands lightly, "You'll be good as new in no time, I promise."

"At least." She manages to pant, her eyes roll toward her head and she struggles to open them as she reaches up to brush my hair behind my ear before cupping my face, "At least I got to see you one last time."

Hot tears roll down my cheeks, I grasp her hand in both of mine and hold it there. The claws they'd put on her nails scratch my cheek but I hardly notice, I turn back to face her, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth.

With one last sigh she sags back on the ground, eyes rolling shut as her hand slips away from my face. It looks so real, it seems so real, it actually hurts me to think about it, that Jade could really be dead. It horrifies me.

My hand lets hers fall completely as I cup my mouth to keep a real scream of horror from ripping out of it when Jade manages to look _dead. _My heart is slamming against my chest, my lines long forgotten.

"No…no." I grab her shoulders, picking her up from the ground, "no, no, no you can't leave me, please! I need you." My head falls across her chest, my tears roll onto her skin, and I can feel them pooling beneath my cheek as the camera pushes closer in on my face, "I love you…" I whisper. My voice sounds broken and on the verge of tears. Just what Cat wanted, but the sound is real and so are the tears and it kills me just to think of how horrified I would be if she were to die. I squeeze my eyes shut and cling to her, still crying.

I know the beams of light shoot down from all around us; a crappy sound effect like a light saber lets me know they've started. The scene cuts short, but I've already been told not to move while they strap Jade into her harness.

The cameras go again now, I lift my head up as the sound gets faster and louder, Jade's torso leaves the ground first, followed by her head, I reel back, falling onto my butt in a puddle with a light splashing sound as I watch her lift off of the ground, her whole body is limp and I know it took a lot of practice for her not to stiffen as she was lifted in the air.

They start her stretching in transformation and do still shots of each bit of her changing as more and more makeup is wiped from her face before its all gone and they have her lower her to the ground, pausing to take the harness off, she's laying on the ground now, and I stand to reach for her, on hand nervously hovering by my mouth as I stare wide-eyed.

I jump back as she pushes into a sitting position, and finally stands. She turns to face me, her eyes on her hand as she stares in awe, before facing me, "Belle…don't be frightened. It's me." she reaches toward me, and I slowly take a step forward until were an arms length apart.

I reach up and brush her hair back examining her makeup free face before looking straight into her eyes, "It is you." I whisper breathlessly. Her fingers push my hair back before her slender hand cups my cheek, my hands rest on her shoulders and she leans forward, her lips brush mine ever so slightly.

My heart jumps in my chest, and she slowly leans forward, my eyes fall closed as I'm lost in this slow kiss, her soft lips moving against mine. She tastes like French vanilla and heaven. I lean against her, enjoying the feeling of this, us. Even if it's just a stage kiss.

We break apart, laughing and I throw my arms around her in a crushing hug, pulling back just as quickly and stand leaning against her, her arm loosely draped around my waist. And Cat yells cut.

"Last scenes everybody!" the process is slow, the transformation of Miss Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and the others, of course. Then were done, wrapped. Jade and I already filmed the final dance, because Cat didn't feel like doing Jade's makeup one day last week.

Everyone is excited, cleaning up goes quickly while the editors skip out with the tapes and the makeup artists pack up while Jade and I clean up our faces and change back into our clothes. My hair is still damp, dripping down my back and sticking to my face, but I don't have half a mind to care. We're done!

"Come on Vega! I want to get home and shower." Jade says, smacking my arm playfully with an over done wink at me.

A few people give us curious looks, but Jade just brushes them off, completely hoping that there minds would fall into the gutter because of her wink and she grabs my arm and tugs me out of the chair I was resting in. I roll my eyes at how impatient she is but allow her to drag me to my car; I have to shower before I meet Andre for pizza anyways.

Jade turns on some rock station the second we start toward her house, and our trip is made in silence. She jumps out the second we're at her house and I quickly turn into her drive way, back out and start for home.

At that same stop sign I got in the crash I hear a vibration, when I look over Jade's phone is sitting in the passenger seat. I frown and scoop it up; she's just got a new message, according to her screen.

I look around in all directions, three times, before I pull the u-turn and head back down to her drive way. When I knock on her door her dad opens it, on his way out once more, and tells me she went straight to her room.

I sprint up the stairs as fast as I can, so I catch her before she gets in the shower. When I go to knock on her bedroom door it slams open, smacking against the wall. I jump back with a squeak as her step-mother storms out, giving me the nastiest glare I've ever seen.

I raise an eyebrow at her and I can practically see the smoke pouring from her ears, I sprint down the stairs to her room in a rush, "Jade? Jade? You left your phone in my car! Jade?" I hit the land and look around the small room. She's not in here, but her bathroom door is open a crack.

I quickly cross the room, knocking softly on the door. It swings open quickly, and I see Jade. Sitting on her closed toilet seat, face buried in her knees, big purple headphones covering her ears as her entire body shook with sobs.

"Jade?" she still doesn't hear me, and now my heart is slamming against my chest. Jade is crying, in her bathroom, on her toilet seat and her step-mother just stormed out of here. No. No way. Not her, not my Jade.

I step up to Jade and cautiously reach out to grasp her shoulder, only to get her attention, "did you already hit me enough?" she spits before her head lifts up and she's startled, nearly falling off the toilet at the sight of me. I take a step closer, even though my feet urge me back, and I take her chin in my fingers, tilting her face upwards so light splashes across her cheek.

"That fucking _bitch_." I hiss, Jade looks shocked and jerks her head away from me, pressing back against her toilet, that fake mask she wears when she wants people to think she's strong appearing on her face. I see right through it.

"Why are you here, Vega?" she spits venomously, I almost fumble away, but I just can't. Behind the venom I can practically hear her crying even though the tears no longer fall from her eyes. She might look like a deadly cobra about to spit, but I'm the dumb idiot about to look it in the eyes.

I balance on the balls of my feet before her, my hands on her thighs looking up at her, "because you left your phone in my car." I whisper, "But I'm staying because I care about you and you're hurt."

"It's none of your business, Vega. Get out." She practically screams.

"Make me." I retort calmly. My hands are still resting on her thighs and I shift closer, standing enough to wrap my arms around her shoulders. She sits stiff for about 5 minutes, and then with a stifled scream-turned sob, sags against me and we both tumble into a pile on her bathroom floor.

Even in the awkward position I'm in I don't move, I hold her and she sobs with her face pressed into my hair against my neck and her arms pressed between our bodies while I rub her back in slow circles, my eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Anger is bubbling in my stomach and if it weren't for Jade's body pressing mine to the floor, and Jade needing me to hold her while she broke down, I'd go up there and ring that woman's neck, and scream at her, and Jade's father.

Tyler flits through my mind, but I just know that Jade would never let this happen to him. I don't know why she let it happen to her, but I know that the bruise on her stomach was probably not from one of Tyler's toys. My attention turns back to Jade, whose crying on top of me, and I hold her and rub circles on her back for the next hour until she finally speaks.

"I'm so scared Tori." She whispers. I almost miss it and it breaks something in my chest when she says it.

"You don't need to be scared Jade, I'm here. And I'll protect you." I whisper.

"Yeah, like you did before…" she bites out in a bitter tone, and it's like a wave crashes into me. I feel like I'm drowning and I gasp for air for a long time before I force myself to sit up half way and push Jade up too so we're facing each other.

I look straight into her red eyes, "I'm sorry I wasn't there, but I swear I'm not going anywhere Jade. I'm not running away." She furiously rubs her hands over her eyes, biting her bottom lip as she stares past me.

"How can I trust you?" it sounds like she wants to growl at me, but can't. She sounds so hollow, and so broken.

"I love you."

"That didn't stop you before." She states, her eyes flicking toward mine for a second before flicking back to the wall.

"I was hurt, Jade. I didn't intend to leave forever. I made a mistake, and I'd do anything to go back and change it." She looks back at me again; her face is an unreadable mask. She doesn't speak, but I can hear the wheels of her brain turning around.

"Get me out of here." She says, and just like that, I can feel my heart piecing back together. I stand on wobbling feet and pull Jade up, wiping the last of her tears away before walking out of the bathroom.

She packs a small bag, puts it over her shoulder and we walk up the stairs. Once she pulls the door shut she locks it, and then starts for the other stairs. I slip my hand into hers, giving her hand a squeeze, "do you want to say goodbye to Tyler?" I ask her.

She takes a breath, and then nods slowly, "I'll be right down, wait by the door?" I know she wants to do this alone, so I nod, give her hand one more squeeze and step down the stairs slowly as she disappears.

Jade's out of my sight now, but a new target is in my line of vision, and she's glaring daggers at me, "You're the reason she's so fucked up! You got her sick! You gave her this disease! She's breaking her father's heart and it's all your fault!" the woman is enraged, and I have half a mind to be frightened but I can't manage it.

"You are such an idiot." I say simply, turning my eyes away from her, her heels click toward me, slapping against the ground. I narrow my eyes in the general direction of the stairs until she comes up and gives my shoulder a hard shove, sending me into the wall.

My spine slams against the corner of the door way and the air leaves my lungs. I didn't think such a small woman could hit that hard. I stepped away from the wall, trying to go around her; she shoved me back, my head cracked against the wall.

_Behave, Tori. _I told myself, gritting my teeth. I stepped forward again and she moved to shove me again, I smacked her hand away like she was a fly. This is really what she reminded me of, anyways.

"If you touch me again, I will end you." I threaten, my voice coming out as cold as Jade's. She's startled and steps back a few paces, nervous because she couldn't possibly expect that from me.

She steps toward me again, a new rage overcoming her face, I step up to meet her, she raises her hand as if to hit me, "I should have sent her away to that camp and she would have been better and she wouldn't be a mental patient." She goes to slap me, but her words are enough of a slap to me.

"Fuck. You." I hiss and Jade's black cheek and the bruise on her ribs are all I can see and then my knuckles are a little sore and someone is screeching like a banshee and all I can think is that I want to kill who ever hurt my girl.

"Tori!" Jade's voice breaks through my thoughts, I blink, looking toward the stairs. Jade's stumbling down them, her eyes wide, focused on me and then she's cupping my face, looking at the side of it, and I realize it stings. The monster _had _slapped me.

"Jade! Tori! What's going on in here?" it's her father, he's looking between the three of us, Jade with her black eye and wild hair and makeup stained face, me with my no doubt red cheek, and his wife with the bloody nose and crazed look in her eyes.

"She punched me! You're daughters little whore punched me!" she screamed, fake tears coming to her eyes as she clung to his arm. He looked over at us, a stony look filling his features.

"Don't you dare call her a whore you narrow minded, open legged, _bitch_." Jade snarls, her arm is wrapped around my waist, and now she tugs me closer to her while she glares down her step mother who looks more embarrassed then angry.

"She is a whore, she's a filthy little girl and she gave you that mental disease!" the crazed blonde hollered. Jade's dad is standing there silent, staring at the top of the stairs and suddenly we've all seemed to notice this and we all turn toward the stairs, and Tyler is standing there.

"What's wrong with Jade?" Tyler asks. We're all silent.

"She's a filthy little faggot." Her step-mom spits shattering the silence, "just like that whore she's always with." Her icy glare turns to me and I return it levelly, her lip curled up in a smile.

I can practically hear Jade's heart shatter as Tyler's face screws up in confusion. His brain must be plugging in things to try and work this out, "What's a faggot, Jade?" I wrap my arm around her waist and hold her up, because I can feel her body shaking and I now know why she was so scared.

"A derogatory term that confused and hateful people call other people who fall in love with people of the same gender." She manages to say, watching her brother fearfully. He takes a minute to think this over and slowly walks to the stairs to stand in front of Jade.

He grabs the sleeve of her sweater and pulls her until she's bent down to his level and he kisses her bruised cheek and smiles, "what's wrong with love?" he asks, Jade's face cracks into a smile, and then she pushes Tyler behind her because the step monster's face has turned hideous with rage and she lunges toward them. I step in front of them, pushing Jade behind me, with Tyler behind her, and then Jade's dad steps in front of us, his arm hooking around far enough to cover me and Jade.

"Get out of my house, you stay away from my children, and I don't want to see you again until we're in court." His voice is hard, stern, and I can hear a bit of sorrow in it, but I can't help but feel a bit of happiness wash away at the anger I'd felt toward him for letting this happen to Jade. The Monster tries to lunge at us again, but he gently grips her shoulder and shoves her out the door, "if you're not gone in fifteen minutes I'll call the cops."

The door slams and he locks it, I hear her scream, and he sighs, "Tori, Jade, lets get you some ice for your faces and you two can fill me on what I've been missing. I'm so sorry for this Jade." I grip Jade's hand, giving it a squeeze, she returns it.

"Ty, why don't you go up to your room for a bit, watch a movie?" Jade suggests.

"Can Tori come with me?" Jade turns to look at me, I shrug, he grins.

"I'll get some ice and come watch a movie with you." I tell him, he smiles and runs upstairs while I walk with Jade into the kitchen. Her dad hands me the ice, I quickly tell him what happened between me and this she-witch, grab two bowls of ice cream and go join Tyler upstairs to watch Cars while Jade talks to her dad alone.


	15. The Pool is Closed

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**_Chapter Fourteen: _ The Pool is Closed **

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**One Chapter left! I hope you enjoy this one. **

"Tori." Someone nudged my shoulder with a small hand, two times, sharp jabs. I rolled my shoulder away and cracked my eyes open, staring straight at a red car. I nearly jumped out of my skin, and then I realized that I was staring at Tyler's bed, "Earth to Tori! You're ice creams melting."

I turned my head toward my bowl which was, in fact, filled with melting ice cream, "Yeah…I guess it is. I'm really tired." I mumbled none the less I scooped up a spoonful of the melted mess and stuffed it in my mouth.

Tyler shrugged and set his bowl down next to me, curling up on his side and watching the movie though half closed eyes. It wasn't too much longer before he was snoring softly. I was as quiet as I could be as I collected our bowls, shut the movie off and –as an after thought- pulled his shoes off.

I stepped out of his room, pulled the door closed so it was open a crack and slowly walked down the hallway and the stairs. I could hear them talking, but I couldn't hear what they were saying, and I didn't know if I wanted to interrupt them so I started walking slower.

"Tori, you walk like an elephant." Jade called out, her tone filled with laughter. I shook my head, a smile tugging on the corners of my mouth, and stepped into the kitchen. Jade was sitting on a stool at the counter, scooping chocolate ice cream into her mouth while her dad sat on the other side of the counter with a nearly empty bowl, "Come join us. And get a bowl of ice cream, because I will not listen to you slurp that down."

I shrug my shoulders, set Tyler's bowl in the sink, rinse mine and get myself some more strawberry ice cream before I sit down next to Jade at the counter, "So Tori, how's school going for you?" her father asks, taking a spoonful of ice cream.

"It's interesting. Kind of crazy." I shrug one shoulder while scooping ice cream into my mouth.

"I heard about the movie you guys were doing. I can't wait to see it. Jade tells me you're quite the actress." My cheeks feel warm and I stare down at the pink ice cream in my bowl and don't reply.

Her father chuckles and I see him get up and cross the room, "you're welcome to stay here, Jade, but if you'd rather get away for awhile I completely understand. Just text me if you go to Tori's. Good night girls."

"Night." I call after him; Jade just nods her head scooping chocolate ice cream into her mouth silently. We hear her dads footsteps up the stairs and then down the hall and finally his door shuts, "So, still wanna go to my place?" she nods standing up with her bowl. I hand mine to her and she dumps them in the sink before turning to face me, "Grab your bag and we'll get going."

I slide off the stool and pull my keys out of my pocket before following Jade to the front door where she'd dropped her bag. She picks it up and slides it onto her shoulder, her eyes staring at her feet.

I step up to her and gently wrap my arms around her shoulders in a quick hug before pulling open her front door and looking out toward my car sitting in the driveway. She steps out the door behind me, pushing me slightly so I stumble ahead a few steps. She locks the door and then we head down to my car.

The drive to my house is silent and when I pull into my driveway Jade stares up at the door with wide eyes. I sigh and undo my belt, hand going for the door handle. Jade still hasn't moved.

I leaned toward her, "Jade." I whisper in her ear. She turns her head toward me, her eyes lingering on the door for a second before they meet mine. My hand cups her face and I kiss her quickly, "take a deep breath and open the door sweetheart." I lean away from her, open the door and slide out.

Jade's out of the car in a minute, grabbing my arm and pushing me against the car, her mouth crashing down on mine. Her mouth is warm and her hands on my hips burn through the cotton as she presses me against the door, her hands leaving my hips to cup my face and pull my closer.

Fireworks explode behind my eyes and everything that is Jade wraps the pair of us in a cocoon of her. My arms wrap around her waist and my hands flatten against her back as I hold her too me, and then the front door opens and we spring apart.

"You two can't do that _inside_?" Trina asks. She's standing in the doorway, hand on her hip that is cocked to the side while her eyebrow is raised in question, "Come on, some pervert might be watching you two. Take it in, take it in!" she steps out the door, grabs my arm and Jade's and pulls us into the house, slamming the door behind her and locking it, "Mom! Tori's back! She brought her girl friend!"

"Trina!" I squeak. Mom emerges from the back hallway, giving me a disapproving look.

"Victoria Marie Vega!" she yelled angrily, "What the hell were you thinking scaring me like that! It's been 3 hours and you still weren't home or answering your pho-." The words died on her lips as she finally came to a stop in front of Jade who was sniggering at the use to my full name, "Jade! Sweetie, what happened to your face?"

"Ah….family trouble." She said, ringing her hands together, "I'd rather not talk about it right now, but don't worry. It's all fixed." She gave my mom a winning smile, and for the first time in awhile it wasn't a forced smile.

"Alright sweetheart." She kissed the top of Jade's head and turned her eyes back to me, "and you, you better not ever do this to me again, do you understand me?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry I made you worry mom, I just got caught up." Mom nodded, hugged me, and then waved Trina off before she, too, disappeared. Jade laughed softly once they were both gone and turned to me.

"Want anything before we go upstairs?"

"The only thing I want right now is a shower. I feel disgusting." She mutters. I shrug, take her hand and pull her up the stairs. I take her bag after she grabs a change of clothes and I go into my bedroom while she heads into the bathroom.

I toss her bag across the room and sit down on my bed, pulling my phone from my pocket and flicking the screen on. 10 missed calls from Mom, 6 from Andre, 4 from Cat, 5 from Beck and a bunch of texts.

I texted Andre to tell him something came up and I was sorry I ditched, I texted Cat back a sorry and I was about to text Beck when my phone buzzed and his name and picture flashed across my screen, I accepted the call.

"Hey Beck, I was just about to text you. What happened?" seeing all those calls from everyone kind of made me nervous.

"Nothing, nothing. Andre called worried about and that set Cat off and her phone died so she made me call you, and then I got worried. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, there was just some shit I got caught up in. I'm alright."

"What shit?" he asks.

"It's not really my place to say, but don't worry about it. Everything's fine. I've got to go pull out the hide-a-bed for Jade. I'll talk to you Monday, okay?"

"Alright Tori, Jade's okay, right?" he asked, worry seeping into his tone.

"She'll get there. I'll see you Monday, Beck." We exchanged quick goodbyes and I hung up, tossed my phone to the foot of my bed and yanked the hide-a-bed out before I changed into a pair of shorts and a clean shirt, yanking my hair out of the ponytail I'd had it in all night. I shook my hair out and kicked my clothes toward my dirty clothes pile on the other side of the room.

"Vega." Jade said, pushing my door open. Her hair was hanging in wet curls around her face and the makeup was gone from her now clean, pale face.

"You know, you _can _say my name Jade."

"Sure I can, Vega." She jokes, pushing a pick through her hair, "can I get some water?"

"Can you say my name?" I shot right back. Why it was important to me to have her say my name I couldn't tell you, but something deep in me just wanted to know she could bring herself to say it, on purpose, to my face.

"Why does it matter?" she snapped back. I turned on my heel and walked over to her standing about an arms length away.

"Why wont you say it?" I returned, locking gazes with her. I could see her shoulders tense up, her jaw set in anger.

"Vega, what is your problem?"

"I don't know, West; just say it and you can have some water."

"Fine…" she mumbled something that could have been Tori under her breath and looked away.

"What was that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as a smile tugged at the edges of my lips. Her head snapped up and she glared at me but my nearly smile didn't falter; I just batted my eyelashes at her and made a "come on" motion.

"Tori! Tori, Tori, Tori_, Tori fucking Vega_, are you happy?" she snarled. A smile pulled up on my lips and transformed into a grin and I nodded, reaching down to grab her wrist before I tugged her downstairs and poured her a glass of water.

"Thank you, Jade." She shrugged, taking a huge gulp of her water and staring down into it while she swallowed. I smirked, suppressing a laugh as I watched her face turn a light pink color, "I'm going to go crawl in bed, come up when you're done, okay?"

She nods and I walk slowly to the door and flip the lock closed, something Trina _never _remembers to do. "Tori."

"Hmm?" I turned around to face her; she was setting the cup in the sink, watching her hands intently, "Jade?"

"Thank you for this, I really don't-." she halts for a second, swallowing hard, "thank you so much Tori, I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything Jade." I tell her, pausing by the stairs and motioning her over to me. She shuffles slowly over to the stairs and I hug her briefly before we climb up the stairs and make our way into my room.

I crawled straight into my bed, plugging my phone in before collapsing by my pillows. Jade stood by the pull out for a minute, clicking around on her phone absently before dropping her phone onto the bed walking over to flick the lights off.

"Jade?"

"Hmmm?" she responded, I could hear her moving past my bed and I reached out in the dark, my hand landing on her wrist, "What are you..." I gently tugged her down next to me, and she instantly curled up on her side and pulled my arm around her.

I smirked, adjusting so I was lying behind her with her back flush against me while she quickly drifted to sleep. Her breathing slowed to deep, shallow breaths and she rolled over onto her back, flipping so her arm was wrapped around my waist. Slowly I drifted to sleep.

"Tori…" breath fanned across my ear and someone was trailing their fingers down my bare sides. Goosebumps flashed across my skin from my toes up to my head and my eyelids popped open.

Jade was smirking down at me from where she was propped up on one arm, her green eyes dancing across my face while her fingers crept up my side. I stifled a yawn and sat up slightly, smacking her hand away from my side.

"Good morning." She grinned, "I've been trying to wake you up for an hour."

"Sorry, I haven't been getting much sleep lately." I yawned into my hand and rolled onto my back, blinking up at the ceiling. The sunlight flicked off of the gold stars and they shined all over my room.

"It's okay. You look kinda cute when you're asleep. Maybe it's cause your mouths not moving." She gave me an over done wink and rolled onto her back, her hands folding up on her stomach, "You roll around a lot in your sleep, I'm surprised you've managed to keep your shirt on."

I glance down and see that my shirt had rolled up and gathered around my bra, which is where Jade's fingers were dancing across my skin still, tickling me. I smacked her hand away again and she sniggered, returning her hands to her stomach as I yanked my shirt down.

"Listen you, don't mock my sleeping. You _talk _and _try to kill_ people in your sleep. I don't think my rolling is that bad in comparison." I joke, turning my head to look at her only to find her head turned so she's facing me, watching me intently, "what?"

"I just missed this." She whispered, "And us."

"What exactly is this? What are we?" I asked, feeling this hallow space in my chest and this knot in my stomach. She bites her lip before reaching over and taking my hand in hers.

"We're just us." She whispers, "Unless you want something more?" her eyebrows raised up in question and now I can see she's as nervous as I am. I roll onto my side and she copies me.

What do I want?

_Jade. I want Jade. _

My hand goes forward and I brush her hair away from her face, "I want us, I want you." I whisper, "And if you're not ready for that just yet, I'll wait until you are."

She smiles, not one of those fake smiles or her little half smiles. This is a full smile, showing off her teeth and reaching her eyes and she pulls me into a crushing hug and then kisses me hard, pulling me as tight as she can against her.

She pulls away from me and I'm looking back at Jade, my Jade, my _Jae, _"Tori Vega, will you be my girl friend, again?" she asks still smiling at me. A laugh bubbles out of me and I manage to nod, "Yes, then?"

I hook my hand around her neck and press my lips to hers in a quick kiss, "Yes." I breath, and then kiss her again, slower this time. Savoring this moment. My heart is hammering in my chest and my stomach has butterflies dancing in it and Jade is all around me.

A ringing phone pulls me out of the kiss and Jade is laughing now, too, as we both scramble to find the ringing device, it's my phone but Jade picks it up, "Hello? Hey Beck. Oh just hanging out with Vega. Coffee? Sure, meet you in an hour? Okay." She hangs up and tosses my phone away.

"We're going out to breakfast with the gang, go shower." I roll my eyes at her demanding tone, regretting it when her fingers find my sides again and start tickling me until I'm screaming with laughter and tears are rolling down my face while I try and wriggle out of Jade's grasp.

Once she finally lets me go I sprint into the bathroom, shower, change and we head to the coffee shop near the school. Jade slips her hand into mine as we walk up to the door and she pulls the door open for me.

The gang is already inside when we get there and I send them a short wave as Jade and I get in line behind an elderly couple who are holding hands and laughing with each other. I smile at the white haired women when one leans over and pecks the other on the cheek.

Jade grins and squeezes my hand tightly, I lace my fingers through hers and we stand a fraction of an inch closer as we step up and place our orders in perfect sync. The guy behind the counter looks shocked and the other two women grin and shake there heads at us with clear amusement.

"Don't you remember when we were like that Janice?" the shorter one asked, looking up at Janice. Janice nodded with a small laugh, placing her hand over her partners where it rested on Janice's arm.

"I sure do Trish, you liked a coffee with a splash of cream and four sugars and every morning we'd go to the coffee shop and I'd order yours and you'd order mine." She smiled down at Trish with so much love shining in her eyes it made my heart smile, as strange as that sounds.

The boy behind the counter handed the four of us our coffees, we paid, and Janice and Trish went to sit at a table two away from where the rest of the gang was sitting. I sent them a short wave as I sat down next to Andre with Jade on my other side, still holding my hand.

"Hey guys!" Cat greeted with a big smile and a wave.

"Hey Cat." Jade replied with a small smile as she sipped her coffee.

I turned to Andre, "sorry about pizza last night, I really didn't mean to blow you off but a lot of stuff came up."

"Its cool." He replied giving me a half hug and sending a half wave to Jade before turning back to Robbie and arguing about some movie soundtrack. Cat was whispering in Beck's ear and her giggling was the only thing either of us could hear, but I just sat and sipped my coffee and watched my friends while Jade's thumb rubbed circles on the back of my hand and she, too, drank her coffee.

"Alright, are you guys dating?" Robbie asks after about 10 minutes of intently staring at us.

I glanced at Jade, who looked at me and smiled a small secret smile, and kissed my cheek before excusing herself to the bathroom. I watch her leave with a small smile of my own before turning back to the rest of the gang who were watching me with curious gazes.

"Yes, we are dating, again." I stated, taking a sip of my coffee. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I slipped it out, "I've got to take this." I hit accept and walked toward the front door, "hey mom, what's wrong?"

"Jade's father called, and he suggested we all go out to dinner to talk tonight, so come home when you can, but have fun with your friends for now. Alright?" I nodded, realized she couldn't see me and then verbally agreed before hanging up the phone.

I spun on my heel to go back inside and nearly walked straight into Janice, "Oh, crap, sorry about that." I stumbled back a few steps to avoid her coffee spilling on me.

"Its alright." She smiles, "I should have walked a little slower. You've got a bit of coffee on your shirt." She points to the bottom of it where a bit of coffee had indeed spilled on it.

"I'll just go wash it off." I shrugged, reaching for the door, "Have a nice day." I pulled the door open and Trish came bouncing out the door-well not literally but there was a happy sway in her step- she smiled at me with a wide grin.

"Thanks for holding the door for me!" she beamed, wrapped her arm around Janice's waist, and they walked off chatting away happily. I smiled for a minute and just watched them walk until they went around the corner before I finally went inside.

"Took you long enough." Jade grumbled when I reached the table. She yanked me down onto the seat beside her, her arm going around my shoulders. I leaned against her and rested my head on her shoulder. Cat grinned at me and I looked away, my cheeks getting warm.

"You guys wanna go to Karaoke Dokie tonight?" Cat inquires beaming around the table as she took a gulp of her water.

"Sorry Cat, Jade and I will be busy. Maybe another time." I tell her. Jade gives me a curious look, "Parents want dinner, or something." I shrug. Her brows knit together in confusion but she shrugs and sips her coffee again.

"Okay, well we're still going to the Rec-Center and swim, right?" all eyes are on Cat and she just looks confused.

"Cat, it's October, the pool is closed."

"But Beck said we were going to play pool!" Cat protests, we turn to Beck who sighs and shakes his head, pushing his fingers through his hair before turning to Cat, "What?" she asks.

"I meant pool like the game, not pool like swimming." He replies laughing. Cat's cheeks turn pink and she looks down with a soft 'oh' and drinks her water again while chuckles circle the table.

After we finish our drinks we head to the park to play disk golf for a little bit because the weather is actually really nice and then we start the 15 minute walk to the rec-center. Cat pulls Robbie with her at the front of the group while Andre and Beck take up the middle of our little group and Jade and I bring up the end.

"You know, I had a nice little chat with Trish in the bathroom." Jade says randomly, still holding the coffee cup in her hand even though it had been emptied an hour or so ago. Her finger traces the top before she looks up at me, "she said that you reminded her of Janice, which is funny since she saw us for all of five minutes."

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Mmm, yeah." Jade drops her hand down to her side before she took mine into hers, lifted it and she kissed the back of my head before letting our hands drop between us and swing lightly. I notice she keeps looking at me out of the corner of her eye; she smiles at me when I catch her eye.

When we reach the rec-center Jade and I take up a seat in the corner and watch Beck and Andre play pool. Cat plays foosball with Robbie and four other kids occupy the two table tennis tables, leaving Jade and I to watch.

She stretches across the couch, her legs taking up every space except the tiniest spot at the end, but before I can sit she takes hold of my wrist and tugs me down between her legs, pinning me against her.

One her arms wrap around my waist and she rests her chin on my head and clasps her hands together on my stomach, I smile and break her hands apart, slipping fingers through each of hers.

Depending on who was playing, Beck and Andre took places chatting away with us, Cat could be heard cheering every time she would score and pouting every time Robbie would score.

"So dinner?" Jade finally asks when Beck and Andre are both sucked into the last few shots of the game.

"Yeah, my mom called. You dad wants us all to go out to dinner or something. I don't know, we can ask when we get back home." I tell her with a shrug as she shifts slightly underneath me and pulls me closer.

"Well, alright then." She grumbles, pulling her arms tighter around me. Turns out, however, that Tyler got a raging fever and was rushed to the hospital, canceling dinner. I spent the night in the hospital sitting in an oversized chair holding Jade while she watched Tyler all night long. Turns out he just had the flu, and he was better a couple of days later, running around like crazy.


	16. Epilogue

**_Title_: Who Knew**

**Epilogue**

**_Summary_: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.**

**_Rated_: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.**

**_Disclaimer_: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.**

**Final chapter, I hope you like it. There is a time jump, just so you know. **

"I don't know Cat!" I finally snapped, my voice coming out as something between a growl and a scream. Cat squeaked in fear and ducked into Beck's side. Beck let out a sigh and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "Cat…I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Its okay, Tor. Sorry I asked so much." Cat said, peeking out from behind the hand covering her eyes. I chewed on my lip and held back a sigh, taking my cup and shaking it a bit to stir the now room temperature coffee.

"Its fine Cat, I know you're excited to see her too. She said her plane was delayed again she won't be landing until 2 am, now. We need to do something." I push my fingers through my hair as I sit up, trying to force myself to wake up more.

It was only 11 pm, and originally this is when Jade's plane would have been landing, but thanks to plane troubles-who forgets to put gas in the damn plane?- she wouldn't be in until 2 am.

Beck, Cat and I had already been at the airport when Jade finally called to let me know that her plane was delayed, so we decided to stay and were currently around the waiting area. I had just recently gotten a text that she confirmed she'd been in around 2, so now we had to kill even more time.

"I need food." Beck announced suddenly, standing with Cat, "We'll come back at 1 to wait for Jade, alright?" I didn't want to leave, I wanted to sit here and wait for Jade to get back, but I knew that would drive me nuts, so instead I nodded and got to my feet, walking with Beck over to the McDonalds.

He got all of us food while Cat sat in a small corner and stared out the windows at the planes landing. In three hours Jade would be back. She'd gone to Florida to visit her dad, Tyler and meet her new step mom, Aimee.

She'd invited me to go, but I was busy filming a new movie so I couldn't go, which left me alone in our apartment most nights, curled around Jade's pillow wishing she was home, but I wasn't going to stop her from seeing her family, even if I missed her terribly.

Since we'd gotten back together four years ago Jade and I had been inseparable. We pretty much lived together by the beginning of our junior year, and once Jade turned 18 we got an apartment together, finished our senior year and hopped right into our careers.

Jade's father wasn't into music and the arts all that much, but he supported Jade in whatever she choose to do. He even helped Jade pay for her very first movie, a creepy horror flick about a girl and a pair of scissors that actually did pretty well in theaters.

While Jade worked on her movie into the wee hours of the morning, I was working on my demo CD and getting a record deal. But every night, whoever got home first made dinner and had the table set for whoever wasn't home and we ate and told each other about our days. It was so nice, and now Jade had been gone for nearly a month and I desperately wanted her home.

"Tori." Someone snapped their fingers next to my head and I whipped my head around to find Cat standing beside me pointing at a little girl, "she was asking if she could have an autograph."

I blinked my eyes and smiled kindly, nodding my head. The little girl handed me my first CD and a purple sharpie, "what's your name?" I inquired; smiling like a mad woman I'm sure. The girl turned to Cat and started making gestures at Cat who automatically started signing back. Was the girl deaf? She had my CD though…

"Her name is Taylor, she doesn't talk." Cat explained, turning back to the girl who signed more, "She said she listened to her music when she first lost her voice and it helped her get through coming out to her parents and she wanted to thank you for that."

I turned to Taylor with a smile, "thank you, for listening to my music and I'm glad it helped you,", scrawling stay beautiful and my name across the CD before handing it back to her. She looked at it and smiled showing off all of her teeth.

"She asked about a picture." Cat stated.

"Of course." I replied instantly, standing up and fixing my hair before standing next to the girl while Cat took a picture of us together. Taylor signed thank you about four times before she rejoined her mother at a table on the other side of the restaurant, just as Beck came over to us with a tray full of food.

"Oh yum!" Cat squealed, plopping into a chair again. I sat down across from her and Beck sat next to her, passing out food to each of us before we greedily shoveled it into our mouths.

After I got through my hamburger I slowed down my inhaling and ate my chicken nuggets slowly with my French fries. All three of us finished about the same time and headed back to the waiting area and pulled out our laptops.

As soon as I signed into my chat account I had four chat requests, "Andre!" I gasped, hitting accept and watching as my friends face materialized on my screen, "how are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good. How're things with you? How's Jade?" he asks.

From what I can tell he's sitting in a recording studio, his hair is in braids again, and he's wearing a red long sleeved shirt. His glasses are perched on the tip of his nose and he's looking at something in the top half of his screen.

"I'm good, my movie just wrapped up. And I'm not sure how Jade is, I've talked to her but I haven't seen her in a month. We're at the airport waiting for her now actually." I answered, adjusting so I was sitting on the floor to get more comfortable.

"We're?"

"Beck, Cat and I." I answered; Beck and Cat leaned over behind me and waved at Andre. Conversation surrounded me from all sides but it distracted me for the next two hours, especially when Robbie joined our chat. He had gotten much funnier once he got rid of Rex, and Jade suggested that maybe it was after he finally got laid, but I always ignored her.

But sometime during our chat I ended up falling asleep leaning on Beck, so I learned from pictures posted on Facebook by Andre and Robbie who were randomly taking pictures of us while we were chatting.

When I was woken again, it was nearly two, and my stomach tangled in knots as I put my laptop away and took a seat once again, my foot tapping on the ground as my fingers drummed on my folded up arms and I stared at the terminal, chewing on my bottom lip.

"Tori, I swear if you don't stop I will make Cat slap you." Beck threatened, reaching over and pinning my legs down to stop my tapping. I sighed and threw my arms up in the air, slouching down, and my eyes flicking to the board.

Jade's flight had arrived, according to the stupid board. And people started coming out of the terminal, I popped out of my chair in a blink, scanning the crowd on my tip toes. No brown hair with blue and yellow hair streaks, none, what so ever.

"Where is she?" I grumbled, frowning and ringing my hands together.

"Vega!" a familiar voice called, my eyes scanned across the crowd. Pale face, black hair, burnt apple green eyes. Jade. My feet moved quickly and I ran toward her. She dropped her carry on at her feet as I slammed into her, throwing myself into her arms. She picked me up and spun me around, my legs wrapped around her and she leaned against the wall next to us.

I leaned down and kissed her long and hard. Savoring being in her arms again. I actually heard a few cameras going off around us, but I didn't have a care in the world as she set me down and I kissed her again, short but sweet, and pulled back.

My hand reached up and my fingers curled through her black and blue spirals of hair, "I like what you've done with it." I tell her, looking from her hair up to her smiling face, "It looks amazing. _You _look amazing. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Vega." She grinned at me, her hand cupping my face. She kissed me once more quick, grabbed my hand, grabbed her bag and tugged me over to Beck and Cat who were holding their bags and my laptop.

We went to baggage claim, got Jade's bags, and then went out to the car. Beck and Cat were in the front and Jade and I were sitting in the backseat, I took the middle and shoved her bags behind Cat while I snuggled up next to Jade, unwilling to let her out of my sight again.

I could hear the chuckle rumble through her when I leaned my head on her shoulder and wrapped my arms around her, but I didn't give a shit if she found it funny. A few seconds later she pressed a kiss to the top of my head and wrapped her arm around my back and held me closer. There's silence in the car filled in only by the radio and the cars movements start to rock me to sleep.

The next time I open my eyes I'm lying in the bed Jade and I share, tangled in the purple sheets in the middle of the bed on my stomach. Beside me the bed is cold and the house is silent. My heart jumps in my chest, did I dream of picking Jade up?

"Shit!" I hear her voice and the sound of metal hitting tile. I fly out of bed, stumbling down the hall of our apartment and into the kitchen. Jade's holding a now dented frying pan in her hand and frowning at it. Her black curls are messy and frizzy and she's wearing one of my over-sized fairy shirts.

"Thank goodness." I say, she turns to me with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of her head while she hides the pan behind her back, "I don't care that you dented the frying pan, Jade." I tell her, stepping into the kitchen.

"Good, because it was a piece of shit anyways." She tosses it to the ground again, her demeanor changing in a flash as she fixes her dark eyes on me. I'm reminded of a lioness stalking her prey as Jade strides over to me, taking my face in her hands and pulling me toward her until her mouth is on mine and our bodies are flush against each other. She backs me into the wall, one hand holding my hip against it while the other tangles in my hair.

When she finally pulls away from me she's not smiling, instead she's frowning. My heart seems to thud to a stop, "What's wrong?" she shakes her head, pursing her lips, "what is it, Jade?"

"Go get dressed." She demands, grasping my wrist and tugging me down the hallway. Panic floods through me and I obey her command in a flash, tugging on some jeans and a clean shirt while she pulls on a skirt and a tight green top with her combat boots. Once I shove my feet into some converse Jade grabs my wrist again and tugs me downstairs.

She unlocks the door to the passenger seat for me before going around to the driver's side. I reach nervously for the door and slowly slide in, staring at Jade in fear. Was she kicking me out? Was she going to break up with me? What the hell was going on?

"Where are we going Jade?" she motions for me to shut up as she stares at her phone. A satisfied smile curls up on her mouth as she starts the car and pulls away from the curb. She leans forward and turns on the radio, Take a Hint fills the car and Jade chuckles.

"Remember when we sang this at Nozu?" she asks. I nod slowly, now really confused. She doesn't say anything else for about fifteen minutes and then she stops the car, "put this on." She hands me a bandana, "cover your eyes, Vega."

"Jade…"

"Don't argue with me, Vega. Put it on." She snaps. I roll my eyes at her, like I'm not amused. But now I'm just frightened. What is she doing? I tie the thing around my head and I feel the car shut off, her door opens and I sit and wait.

A few seconds later my door opens and Jade grabs me, pulling me out of the car. She wraps her arms around my waist and we start walking slowly. Jade doesn't say anything and all I can feel is my heart trying to break out of my chest. I force myself to breathe.

_Jade isn't dumping me. Jade loves me, I love her. Nothings wrong, she's just playing a joke. She's not breaking up with you. _No matter how many times I say it, my heart won't slow down.

We come to a stop, Jade lets me go and I hear some rattling and a creak before Jade's arm is around me once more, pushing me forward, "there's a step here…" she mumbles, I lift my foot up higher to feel for it and step up into wherever we are. My best guess is a house.

A door shuts behind me and Jade is pushing me to the left, "Stay here." She whispers, kissing my temple before her feet disappear in front of me. I hear creaking of stairs and someone slams a door. A few minutes pass before I hear it again and Jade's stomping down the stairs in front of me.

She wraps her arms around me again, and we walk further to my left. I hear a door sliding open, "step down, carefully." Jade commands. I do so and the door slides shut behind me, Jade's fingers brush my hair and the blind fold falls away.

The first thing I notice is a huge banner that says 'Happy Birthday Tori' and then I notice all of my friends grinning at me. I turn to Jade and sock her in the arm, "I thought you were going to break up with me, jerk!" I turn away from her crossing my arms in a fake pout but I can see her smiling out of the corner of my eye, she grabs my wrist and spins me to her, wrapping her arms around me.

"I would never break up with you, I love you Tori." She whispers, kissing me soft and quick, "happy birthday." she says. A loud round of happy birthday fills the backyard and I can't believe it took me this long to figure out I was in my own house.

"Thank you guys!" I laugh, leaning against Jade as they all burst into a horrible rendition of Happy Birthday and my dad walks over carrying a cake lit with 21 candles. When the finished I closed my eyes and blew them out.

"No wish?" Jade whispered in my ear, as if she knew.

"Nope. I've got you, and I've got my friends. What more do I need?" I whisper back as we walk to the table with my dad and get our own slices of cake. Who needs breakfast food when there's cake to be eaten?

Cat bounces over to me just as I finish eating my slice of cake and tosses her arms around my shoulders, "happy birthday, Tor!" she squeals, crushing my neck in her arms as she puts all of her weight on it. When she lets me go I have to hold onto er so I don't fall over as the oxygen and blood rush back to my head, "sorry." She whispers.

"It's fine, Cat." I tell her with a smile and a crushing hug of my own. She tugs me to a small group of people standing by the grill. I spot Beck easily, Trina is beside him and Robbie beside her, and then I spot Andre next to Robbie and crush the pair of them in a huge hug before I hug Trina, too.

I don't see Jade for the next hour or so, and when I finally felt her come up behind me I sighed in relief as my eyes gazed over the world beyond the balcony. She wrapped her arms around my stomach and leaned her chin on my shoulder; I didn't need to look to know it was her.

"Enjoying your party Tori?" she asked.

"I am. Where have you been?" I turned my head slightly to look at her.

"Around." She shrugs. Kissing my cheek, "come on, we've got to go say goodbye to everyone." She slips her fingers through mine and pulls me downstairs. I stand at the door hugging my friends goodbye and then I say goodbye to my parents and Trina before Jade and I go back out to her car.

The ride home is silent and so is the walk up to our apartment. Jade bows her head in concentration as she unlocks the door, her hair falls over her face and she growls in frustration as she flicks through the 8 keys on her keychain.

I reach over and brush her hair away from her face and over her shoulder, "What?" she asks, straightening to stare at me with a strange smile on her face. I shrug, "just felt like it?" I nod and she smiles, taking a step to close the space between us, she pushes my hair back from my face silently, her fingers lingering on my cheek for a moment before she unlocks the door and pushes it open, flicking the light on.

I step in behind her and push the door closed, flipping the lock and sliding the chain into place, "Did you ever think, the day we met, that one day we'd be living together and dating?" I ask.

Jade turns to me from the kitchen where she's holding a loaf of bread, "No. I didn't think we'd be together as in dating, but when you called me Go that day on the play ground, I knew I'd want to be in your life as long as possible."

I grin.

"Did you ever think about it?"

"About us, being a thing? Back then, no. I just knew you were interesting, a mystery. I liked mysteries. You're my favorite enigma, Jade. I never wanna lose you." I walked over to our bar and sat down on one of the stools watching Jade make her favorite sandwich, peanut butter and banana.

"When did you know?" she asks, slowly slicing a banana.

"Know what?" I ask, twirling a pen on the counter top.

"That you never wanted to lose me." she stops cutting her banana and looks up at me, leaning over the counter.

"The day I saw you kiss Jeremy Stevens." I told her honestly, "I hated myself when I walked away. The day we moved I sat in the backseat, crying enough tears to fill an ocean. It took me three weeks to be okay enough to make a new friend at school when we got here, and even that friend knew I was constantly sad."

"When did you stop being sad?"

"When you walked into Sikowitz's class and told me to stop rubbing on your boyfriend." I spin the pen again, my cheeks warming. Jade chuckled and I heard her slicing through the banana again, "did any of those girls ever make you feel better?"

Jade's eyes meet mine and she stops cutting the banana again. Right after we'd started going back out she'd told me about all of the girls she'd fucked around with trying to find just one that could make her feel like she did with me, but we'd been interrupted by Tyler and I'd never wanted to bring it up.

"No." she whispers, "none of them made me feel like you, nobody can make me feel the way you make me feel." She sets a plate in front of me and takes one for herself, walking around to sit next to me while we eat, "I love you, Tori Vega."

I turn to her and smile, "I love you, Jade West." She leans over and kisses me, it's sticky and she's got peanut butter all over her lips. I lick mine instinctively as she pulls away and she licks her lips, too and smiles at me. My heart jumps in my chest, reminding me it's placed back where it belongs.

_Jade West. _

A name I'd longed to hear for years.

It's the name of the girl I fell in love with.

It's the name of the girl I lost, and then found.

It's the name of the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with.

It's the name of the girl who is my best friend.

It's the name of the girl who _is _my heart.

It's the name of the girl I'm in love with.

It's the name of the girl who is mine forever.


End file.
